AstraZeneca Will Ax Its U.S. Workers’ Pension Plan This Year

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, a U.S. subsidiary of the company manufacturing one of the world’s most prominent Covid-19 vaccines, will terminate its $1.3 billion pension plan later this year, according to company officials.

The company, which calls itself AstraZeneca US, late last month sent 7,000 workers and retirees at its U.S-based research and manufacturing locations a notice of intent to terminate the plan March 31. The company employs 14,000 workers in the U.S., but it locked new hires out of the plan in 2000 and froze all new benefit accruals in late 2017, according to U.S. Labor Department data.

The drugmaker’s ...