Dexcom, the San Diego-based maker of continuous glucose monitors, is moving its local manufacturing operations to Arizona and cutting more than 500 local jobs.
Barry Regan, Dexcom’s executive vice president of global operations said the company remains committed to San Diego, and its headquarters will remain here. In an interview with the Union-Tribune, Regan explained that this strategic shift stems from Dexcom outgrowing its manufacturing sites in San Diego.
“Dexcom will transform its San Diego operations from a combined commercial manufacturing and R&D facility to an innovation center exclusively focused on research and development moving forward,” Regan said. “So, we will convert our existing San Diego facilities into additional R&D capacity in response to our unprecedented growth and demand for new products.”
This decision will cut 536 manufacturing employees from its San Diego operations. Regan said some of these workers will be eligible to apply for manufacturing roles in Arizona with relocation assistance.
Following the reduction, Dexcom will have about 2,400 employees based in San Diego. The company reported a global workforce of about 9,600 employees at the end of last year.
The headcount reduction represents about 15 percent of Dexcom’s U.S. manufacturing workforce, Regan said.
Dexcom opened the Mesa, Ariz., facility in 2017. All of the company’s manufacturing for the United States market has been done in Arizona and San Diego.
“About four years ago, we only had 500 manufacturing roles in Mesa – today, we have 2,000,” Regan said. “We’re actually significantly increasing our manufacturing presence in the U.S., it’s just a shift geographically. And in Mesa, we’ve got the scale and we’ve got the space where we can grow and invest.”
While Dexcom is reducing its local manufacturing workforce in the near term, Regan said the company will be hiring more in the future. He said Dexcom has open positions now and will be looking to eventually hire about 400 jobs in San Diego.
The two Sorrento Valley buildings that currently support its local manufacturing operations will be converted into lab space in the next couple of years.
“The buildings we have here on Sequence Drive, they were never (built to be) manufacturing facilities,” he said. “They were more office buildings that we kind of grew into as a startup, and we’ve outgrown them … it’s not suitable the buildings we’ve got for manufacturing, but it’s perfect for research and development.”
Similar to other big life science companies, Dexcom sees San Diego as the best place for research and development because of its proximity to UC San Diego and other research institutions. The location makes San Diego ripe for collaboration and access to top talent.
“At the end of this process, we will have 30 percent more R&D lab space in San Diego as a result of this transition,” Regan said. “We’ve got such an unmet need in the diabetes space, but also a lot of other comorbidities that you associate with diabetes and with obesity … that’s why we have to increase our R&D capacity here.”
Since its founding in 1999, Dexcom has been a leader in developing and manufacturing continuous glucose monitors, which are vital for people managing diabetes. The technology behind continuous glucose monitors has rapidly changed over the past decade. Patients – and even caregivers – can manage the quarter-sized wearable device and track a plethora of health data from their smartphone.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest report that as of 2021 roughly 29.7 million people in the United States are diagnosed with diabetes. Across the globe, about one in 11 people are diagnosed with diabetes, but just over 1 percent actually use a continuous glucose monitor, Regan said.
Before these modern devices, the standard of care was patients periodically pricking their fingers to check their blood glucose levels. Regan explained that there is an urgency to advance this technology, educate doctors and expand insurance coverage for these products so more people can access them.
More recently, however, Dexcom has broadened the application for their technology beyond diabetes management. This summer, the local company is rolling out Stelo, the first FDA-cleared continuous glucose monitor that doesn’t require a doctor’s prescription. This expands the market for Dexcom’s technology and extends it to people who are not taking insulin to treat diabetes, but to manage their general health and glucose levels.
During the first quarter, Dexcom added a record number of new users “which is the leading indicator of future revenue growth,” according to an April 25 research note from financial firm Raymond James. Based on the company’s recent financial performance, the research note says “we believe Dexcom is growing faster than the (continuous glucose monitor) market.”
Read Again https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMib2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNhbmRpZWdvdW5pb250cmlidW5lLmNvbS8yMDI0LzA2LzI2L3Nhbi1kaWVnb3MtZGV4Y29tLWN1dHMtNTAwLWpvYnMtbW92ZXMtbWFudWZhY3R1cmluZy10by1hcml6b25hL9IBAA?oc=5Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "San Diego's Dexcom cuts 500 jobs, moves manufacturing to Arizona - The San Diego Union-Tribune"
Post a Comment