WORKERS at the town’s AstraZeneca plant face yet more uncertainty after plans were revealed to outsource manufacturing.

In a newspaper interview, operations vice-president David Smith said the company aims to farm out production of ‘Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients’ – part of the Hurdsfield site’s operations.

This comes after a warning in August that the pharmaceutical giant would axe a further 4,600 jobs worldwide – on top of the 3,000-strong cull announced in February, when 700 local cuts were made.

A spokeswoman for AstraZeneca has since said job losses at Hurdsfield – which employs 2,500 people responsible for formulation and packing manufacturing – already include their outsourcing plans for Macclesfield.

In The Times article by Robin Pagnamenta, Mr Smith said: "AstraZeneca is about innovation and brand-building...There are lots of people and organisations that can manufacture better than we can."

Speaking about their long-term aim, The Times quoted him as adding: "We would own the intellectual property, the research, branding and the quality and safety issues...but (everything else) would be outsourced."

Although a subsequent statement from AstraZeneca said "fully outsourcing" supply and manufacturing activities was not part of its plans and admitted it would be used "where there was a sound business case".

The spokeswoman said AstraZeneca was currently exploring the manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) – basic chemicals used to make conventional medicines.

API production, which takes place at Hurdsfield, is said to be ideal for outsourcing because it is less complex than other areas of production.

The spokeswoman said: "The purpose of the interview was to speak with David about how the pharmaceutical industry is looking to other industries for supply chain practices and philosophies.

"The headline and introductory paragraphs of the article that appeared in The Times on Monday, September 17, this year, captured select comments from the interview, specifically relating to outsourcing.

"Fully outsourcing supply and manufacturing activities, as implied in the article, is not part of the AstraZeneca strategy."

But Times journalist Mr Pagnamenta stands by his interview, which quotes Mr Smith as saying cheaper contract manufacturers could be found in the Far East, but a transformation would take several years to complete because of regulatory hurdles.

AstraZeneca says delivery of high quality medicines for patients remained its top priority.

A spokesman added: "There was an announcement about redundancies earlier in the year. Any changes will take place gradually, and although we don’t know what might happen in the long-term, people currently affected are already aware of the situation."

A spokeswoman for manufacturing union UNITE said: "The job cuts already made at Hurdsfield, we have been told, are part of this outsourcing plan. We will cope and deal with any more if they do happen, but we are not aware that is the case.

"We don’t want people in Macclesfield to worry for their jobs unnecessarily and we are not aware of any more job cuts."