The Athenry facility will produce millions of glucose-monitoring devices when fully operational, along with 1,000 tech graduate and technician level jobs.
US medtech company Dexcom plans to create up to 1,000 jobs in Galway at a new manufacturing facility for its glucose-monitoring devices.
The multinational has selected Athenry to be the location of the new facility, which will have €300m invested in it over the next five years. This will be Dexcom’s first manufacturing site in Europe, expanding upon the company’s existing capabilities in the US and Malaysia.
Dexcom expects to create 1,000 tech graduate and technician level jobs once the site is running at full capacity, along with 500 construction jobs while the facility is being built.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, TD, claimed the decision by Dexcom will be one of “the biggest single private sector investments ever in the West of Ireland”. The project is being supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.
“In addition to the thousand jobs being created by the company, it will bring many spin-off opportunities, jobs and contracts for other businesses in the region,” Varadkar said.
Dexcom is known for its continuous glucose-monitoring systems (CGM), which are simple wearables that help people manage their diabetes.
Last October, Ireland was one of the initial launch markets for the company’s G7 device, its latest CGM that sends real-time glucose readings to a compatible smart device or receiver, without the need for finger sticks or scanning.
Dexcom plans to produce millions of Dexcom CGM sensors each year, helping to improve the lives of people with diabetes around the world.
Barry Regan, Dexcom’s global operations VP, said the company is pursuing an “ambitious growth strategy” due to the success of the G7 in Europe. Regan said this strategy requires more manufacturing capacity to support “our rapidly expanding European user base”.
“Ireland has an exceptional talent pool and an established medtech sector, making Athenry the perfect location for us to establish a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility,” Regan said.
Dexcom said future job openings at the manufacturing facility will be available on its Careers page.
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