AstraZeneca P.L.C. (NYSE:AZN) has been signaling for awhile that it's going to outsource more of its manufacturing work. Or is it? Last week the Times of London quoted one of its European executive as suggesting that research and marketing, not manufacturing, is a "core activity" and detailing a shift to China and India, among other places. But now AstraZeneca tells Ed Silverman at Pharmalot and Gary Haber at the Wilmington News Journal (where AstraZeneca has its U.S. HQ and hundreds of employees) that it actually does not plan to get out of manufacturing entirely. "Fully outsourcing supply and manufacturing activities, as implied in the article, is not part of the AstraZeneca strategy.
This subject is a delicate balancing act, of course, because public companies have to please investors, who generally like to hear about cost-cutting actions, and public customers and politicians, who often react against the loss of jobs. Is this is a case of journalists getting it wrong, or AstraZeneca just trying to soften the message?
