What Funds are Available?

The KOS Foundation was established by Zdenko Kos with an initial £50 million donation from a company he founded in 2011. Three other companies in his portfolio subsequently contributed £50 million each, bringing the Foundation’s total initial funding to £200 million.

The research was fully funded from the outset, with an initial budget of £308.2 million. Supporters, financiers and donors shared the team’s ambition to advance cancer research. By November 2024, expenditure had reached £498.6 million. A further effort was made during 2025 to complete the work, during which the founder contributed an additional £104.2 million.

By 30 December 2025, total expenditure had reached £602.8 million.

With financial support and sustained work from those involved with the Foundation, particularly its founder Zdenko Kos, the team concluded 15 years of research and reported promising findings relating to medicines and therapeutic techniques for six forms of cancer: brain, breast, colorectal, lung and bronchial, prostate, and skin cancer. These findings represent the team’s assessment and require further research and development before their effectiveness can be established.

On 30 September 2026, the Zdenko Kos Foundation signed a Memorandum of Intent to transfer all legal rights relating to its innovations, including 447 licences, 288 patents, and 316 utility patents and associated licences to a major German pharmaceutical company for €5.8 billion which has manufactured the relevant tablets, combination therapies, infusions, and injections for over seven years. The transfer is expected to provide the German Pharma Giant with a 20-year advantage in further research, as applicable legislation prevents third parties from reproducing the protected medicines, in whole or in part, for a minimum of 20 years.

Founder Zdenko Kos has decided that the entire €5.8 billion in proceeds will be invested in his project to build hospitals across Europe and the United Kingdom.