Henrietta Lacks’ family reaches second settlement with pharmaceutical brand for ‘stolen’ cells
TheGrio...
For years, pharmaceutical brands have profited from cells taken from Henrietta Lacks without her consent. Now her family is seeking justice.
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old Black woman, went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore seeking care for cervical cancer. As she sought care, her cervical cells were harvested without her consent and have laid a foundation for revolutionary scientific research for Covid-19 vaccines, cancer treatments, the flu, Parkinson’s, and more.
And in recent years, Lacks’ family has been seeking justice for the stolen cells that big pharmaceutical companies have profited from for years. With the assistance of attorney Ben Crump, the family reached its second settlement in a series of lawsuits holding Big Pharma accountable for its unlawful procurement of her cells, known as “HeLa cells,” and their use in scientific research.
In August 2024, the family filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland, accusing Novartis, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company that owns hundreds of patents developed using HeLa cells.
“Novartis was aware that these cells were taken without consent,” the lawsuit read, per the New York Times. “Despite this, Novartis never sought or received permission from the estate of Henrietta Lacks to use her cells, treating them as mere tools or resources.”
Most recently, the Lacks family and Novartis reached a settlement. Though neither party revealed the details of the settlement, they acknowledged the agreement in a statement:
“Members of the family of Henrietta Lacks and Novartis are pleased they were able to find a way to resolve this matter filed by Henrietta Lacks’s estate outside of court,” the statement noted.
“For the family and her grandchildren, this is certainly justice because people said they would never realize any benefit or compensation from her immortal HeLa cells, even though these pharmaceutical companies were profiting billions and billions of dollars,” Crump added in a separate interview, revealing the family’s satisfaction with the settlement.
This marks the family’s second settlement in its fight for justice for Lacks. In August 2023, they settled their case against Massachusetts-based firm Thermo Fisher Scientific for an undisclosed amount, and still have two other active lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies: Viatris and Ultragenyx.
And while these cases and settlements offer a sliver of justice for Lacks, as Crump notes, true justice would have prevented this from ever happening to Lacks 75 years ago.