How BYU scientists struck pharmaceutical gold â and the fight over who keeps the money For the past decade, scientists have been fighting over the proceeds from the massive settlement with Pfizer (Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune) Editorâs note ⢠This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism. One day in 2012, Weilin Xie got a call out of the blue telling him he had $1 million coming his way. No, Xie had not won a lottery. His former professor, Brigham Young University biochemist Daniel Simmons, had called to tell him the money was for Xieâs participation 20 years earlier in research that led to the development of blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex.