Restore Medical and the EIC Accelerator: A Heart Implant Delay

Restore Medical, based in Or Yehuda, Israel, is developing ContraBand, an implant for patients whose left ventricle is failing. The device is delivered by catheter and, according to Ctech, uses the right ventricle to support the left, aiming to improve its pumping and restore the heart's shape. The EIC project's title calls it "the only heart failure medical device that is placed outside the heart".

The European Innovation Council granted €2,499,999 towards a €3.9 million project from December 2022 to November 2024. Its objective promised to launch ContraBand by 2024, generate €15 million in revenue in 2025 and €60 million in 2026, and create over 95 jobs in Europe. By the end of the project the device had no approval; the final report names a pivotal study, CE Mark and FDA approval as next steps. The feasibility study is still recruiting, with completion registered for June 2029 on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Where Restore Medical Stands Now

In July 2025 Restore raised a $23 million Series B co-led by Pitango HealthTech and an undisclosed global strategic healthcare partner, with the EIC Fund and Peregrine Ventures. The money is to complete the European feasibility study and start a US study, following the FDA's Breakthrough Device designation in 2024. The company said early European results showed "encouraging long-term safety and efficacy data". Its feasibility study, RM-20-01, lists a target of 55 patients at sites in Belgium, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Lithuania and Poland.

The Technology: Using One Ventricle to Help the Other

The CORDIS objective describes a "stent-within-a-stent" design delivered by catheter, with built-in reversibility and compatibility with other heart failure treatments and drugs. Ctech reported improvements in cardiac remodelling, haemodynamics and exercise capacity in the early European patients. No peer-reviewed results with patient numbers are cited in the report or in the funding announcement.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

In its last year the project treated 9 new patients, completed 6-month follow-up on 10 and 12-month follow-up on 8, opened 5 more clinical sites and built 54 systems for clinical use. That is real clinical progress. It is not what the objective promised: "introducing the device into European clinical practice" and a launch in 2024. CORDIS still lists the project as signed rather than closed.

1. Clinical developmentAdvancedStudy still recruiting.
2. European launch by 2024MissedNo CE Mark.
3. €15M revenue in 2025MissedNo approved product.
4. Follow-on equityRaised$23M Series B, 2025.

The Money

Restore is a private Israeli company and does not publish accounts. Without a CE Mark or FDA approval, ContraBand cannot be sold commercially in Europe or the US, so the revenue forecasts in the EIC project, €15 million for 2025 and €60 million for 2026, were not met.

What Cannot Be Checked

Why Europe Should Care

The EIC funded an Israeli company with a promise of European jobs and a European launch. The clinical work runs through European hospitals; the launch, the revenue and the jobs have not yet appeared.

The Verdict

Restore Medical and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.