Beacon Newsroom
Diagnostic Devices Inc. Continues to Grow
February 01, 2010
Diagnostic Devices, Inc. and its affiliate company, Prodigy Diabetes Care, LLC, has grown by 800 percent during the past three years and is on pace to do much bigger things in the very near future. The maker of the award-winning Prodigy® blood glucose monitoring systems, the globally operating Prodigy Diabetes Care is growing by leaps and bounds during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Prodigy® had 45 employees at the start of 2009. It now has 200 through its various companies under Prodigy Diabetes Care.Prodigy® initially began operations in Miami four years ago, but hurricane-induced work stoppages proved problematic, since Prodigy® customers needed them each and every day. So ownership began looking for a new home for Prodigy® blood glucose monitoring systems. Ownership soon fell in love with Charlotte, with its highways, airport, trained workforce and quality of life. Headquartered at 9300 Harris Corners Parkway, Prodigy Diabetes Care just inked a deal with the State of North Carolina making Prodigy® the only diabetes testing supplies covered by North Carolina Medicaid, a $30-million contract for Prodigy® expected to save taxpayers as much as $7 million over the course of the two-year agreement. With products in research and development under Prodigy’s Engineering Division, the family-owned company is set to rapidly expand and increase revenues that already exceed $30 million annually.
Owned by two brothers, DDI President Ramzi Abulhaj and Chief Operating Officer Rick Admani Abulhaj, DDI is embarking on a plan to create jobs here in Charlotte by “backshoring” manufacturing operations from China and Taiwan back home to Charlotte. The Abulhaj brothers, both engineers, are committed to creating as many as 200 jobs in Charlotte in the coming year by establishing a state-of-the-art, automated manufacturing system here using robotics. Prodigy® is looking for highly trained technical professionals to run their production lines and paying them family-sustaining wages to do so. By relocating manufacturing from China to an existing facility off Statesville Road, four miles from headquarters, Prodigy® expects to realize as much as 40 percent in savings while helping grow the Charlotte economy.
From its inception four years ago, Prodigy® has been a groundbreaking force in helping diabetics to live better and healthier lives with its line of high-tech products. It was Prodigy® that worked hand-in-hand with the National Federation of the Blind and the American Foundation for the Blind to create the market’s first fully audible blood glucose meter. The Prodigy Voice™ was the first meter to talk blind or low-vision diabetics through the testing process, a meter that won awards from both the NFB and AFB for its ease of use and high quality. And they’re not done working to help diabetics with blind and low vision, considering some of the products in research and development. Prodigy® is the only company to produce blood glucose testing meters for every demographic within the diabetic community, with its audible meters and the smaller, hipper, Prodigy Pocket ™ meter, designed for young people to help boost their compliance and therefore overall health. And all of this is happening at Harris Corners.
