In addition to raising venture capital and launching stock offerings, Massachusetts biotechs are increasingly turning to another source of funding to support early drug research: nonprofit foundations dedicated to fighting serious diseases, The Boston Globe writes.

For instance, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, has awarded more than $300 million to for-profit companies over the past decade to help develop cutting-edge therapies, including $192 million in the Boston area. Epix Pharmaceuticals is receiving up to $37 million, in addition to about $12 million it has already received, to help discover new cystic fibrosis drugs. The money is contingent on Epix’s meeting certain goals.

Other foundations are following suit. For example: The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation said it has given about $25 million to 22 companies, including three Cambridge firms, Biogen Idec, Genzyme and Tolerx. The Muscular Dystrophy Association has awarded nearly $8.5 million to for-profits and is wrapping up negotiations to give $1 million to another company it has not yet publicly named. In the past two years, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation has given $6 million to for-profits, including $1 million to Acceleron Pharma.

Overall, disease foundations invested roughly $75 million in the biotech industry last year, up from $7 million in 2000, according to CenterWatch Monthly, an industry publication. “It’s becoming a significant method of funding,” Robert Coughlin, president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, tells the paper. The council, by the way, is “brainstorming” ways to help bring more foundations and biotech companies together.