ELEM Biotech, a 2018 spin-off of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center chaired by Mariano Vázquez, builds V.HEART, a platform that runs clinical trials on populations of simulated human hearts. Its EIC application described "a supercomputer-based platform to perform massive in-silico clinical trials on populations of digital avatars", covering pacing, cardiac pumps and drug cardiac safety, that would reduce animal testing and "taper" human trials, according to CORDIS.
The European Innovation Council granted €2,482,097 towards a €3.55 million project from March 2023 to August 2025. The final report says the first version of V.HEART was deployed on commercial cloud and "is now utilized by customers to study the cardiac safety of their proprietary compounds". It added an AI model to forecast QT prolongation, a heart rhythm risk, across simulated populations, extended the Alya Red simulation engine to diseased hearts and electromechanics, and built a generator of virtual heart shapes. ELEM's annual turnover is between €500,000 and €1 million, according to Empresia.
Company file
- Legal entity
- ELEM Biotech S.L., Barcelona
- Founded
- July 2018, Barcelona Supercomputing Center spin-off
- Chair
- Mariano Vázquez
- Products
- V.HEART Trials, V.HEART Discovery
- Engine
- Alya Red cardiac simulation
- EIC project
- ELVIS, 1 Mar 2023 to 31 Aug 2025, closed
- EIC funding
- Blended finance
Where ELEM Stands Now
ELEM now sells two products: V.HEART Trials, to configure and run virtual clinical trials in the cloud, and V.HEART Discovery, to screen drug candidates for QT prolongation. In September 2026 a paper by ELEM authors on predicting drug-induced cardiac risk in vulnerable populations, using 512 virtual subjects, won the Safety Pharmacology Society's 2026 Technological Innovation Publication Award, the company said. The Spanish register shows no capital increase since May 2022, and no equity round or EIC Fund investment has been announced.
"This cloud-based product is now utilized by customers to study the cardiac safety of their proprietary compounds."
ELEM Biotech, final report to the EICThe Technology: A Population of Digital Hearts
ELEM generates virtual patients from real medical data, varying heart shape, muscle properties and electrical activation, and simulates how each heart responds to a drug or device on supercomputers. Virtual populations can far exceed the size of traditional trials, and conditions such as heart failure, infarction and bundle branch block can be modelled, the report says. The goal is patient-specific digital twins for precision medicine.
What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
The project promised to finalise V.HEART and expand its range of therapies and virtual populations. The report documents a production cloud platform, a stronger simulation engine and several in-silico trials. It names no customers and gives no revenue. Future work, it says, will focus on validation with stakeholders. CORDIS lists the project as closed.
- Cloud platformDeliveredUsed by customers.
- AI QT predictorDeliveredIntegrated.
- Diseased-heart modelsDeliveredSeveral conditions.
- Commercial scaleUnverifiedSales under €1M.
The Money
ELEM's registered share capital has been €4,757.65 since May 2022. Whether the EIC Fund invested under the blended award, and ELEM's profit or loss, are not public.
What Cannot Be Checked
Questions for the EIC
Which companies pay for V.HEART, how many virtual trials have been run for clients, whether any regulator has accepted V.HEART evidence, and whether the EIC Fund invested are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
Regulators including the FDA and EMA are opening the door to computer-modelled evidence, ELEM says, and virtual trials could reduce animal testing. ELEM carries Barcelona supercomputing research into that market. The EIC funded the product; its revenue shows the market is still small.
What the project promised
A finished supercomputer platform for large in-silico trials of drugs and cardiac devices.
What the record shows
A cloud product in customer use and an award-winning study, with annual sales under €1 million.
The Verdict
Built and selling, still small
ELEM delivered the platform the EIC funded and has customers. Its turnover shows that virtual trials have not yet become a large business.
ELEM Biotech and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.
