Lawyers for Amgen have triggered a ruckus with Massachusetts General Hospital over royalties for its blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel. Amgen paid Mass General $41 million in royalties last year alone for its role in developing the drug, but lawyers for Amgen, which purchased the drug when it bought Immunex in 2001, say they've found language in the contract that is open to interpretation. Mass General says it doesn't read the contract that way. The payments have been used to fund the genetics laboratory of Brian Seed, a Harvard biophysicist whose work contributed to the development of Enbrel.
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