Henrietta Lacks’ family settles with biotech company that earned BILLIONS for using tissue taken from her without consent: Pivotal ‘HeLa’ cells led to the development of polio and covid vaccines

Biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific, has settled a federal lawsuit filed by the family of Henrietta Lacks over its use of her tissue taken without consent at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s. 

More than 70 years after doctors took Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump announced they reached a confidential settlement with the biotech company, which is the largest maker of scientific tools. 

The terms of the settlement will not be made public, according to Crump, who held a news conference with Lacks’s descendants outside of US District Court in Baltimore on Tuesday morning. 

The day marked what would have been the Lacks’s, known as the ‘mother of modern medicine’, 103rd birthday. 

The family sued in 2021, accusing the biotech leaders of profiting billions of dollars from a racist medical system, which led to the development of polio and COVID vaccines. 

The terms of the settlement will not be made public, according to Crump (center), who held a news conference with Lacks’ descendants in Baltimore on Tuesday. The tissue taken from her became the first human cells to be successfully cloned.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took cervical tissue from Henrietta Lacks (pictured) in the 1950s without her consent. Now more than 70 years later her descendants are being compensated for the immense impact her cells made on modern medicine

The tale of Lacks’ ordeal and impact was made into a best-selling book and HBO film

‘The parties are pleased that they were able to find a way to resolve this matter outside of Court and will have no further comment about the settlement,’ Crump said in a statement. 

The tissue taken from the Black woman´s tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned. 

Ever since, HeLa cells have been reproduced infinitely – becoming a cornerstone of modern medicine and enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.

More than 100 corporations have profited from using the HeLa cells, according to the lawsuit, but the Lacks family has never been compensated.

It is the most prolific and widely used human cell line in biology, critical to the treatment of AIDS, hemophilia, influenza, leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, and sickle cell disease, as well as the creation of the polio vaccine and research on the effects of zero gravity in outer space.

Doctors harvested Lacks´ cells in 1951, prior to the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today.   

The lawsuit claimed that the biotech company continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known.

The settlement agreement came after closed-door negotiations that lasted all day Monday inside the federal courthouse in Baltimore, which included various members of the Lacks family. 

The Lacks family in 2021 at the unveiling of a statue on the 70th anniversary of her death at Royal Fort House in Bristol. The statue, created by Bristol artist Helen Wilson-Roe, is the first public sculpture of a black woman made by a black woman in the UK

Lawrence Lacks, and Ron Lacks, the son and grandson of Henrietta Lacks in 2017

‘The parties are pleased that they were able to find a way to resolve this matter outside of Court and will have no further comment about the settlement,’ Crump (pictured on July 28 2023) said in a statement

Scientists discovered that HeLa cells had unique properties. 

While the majority of cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, Lacks’ cells survived and thrived in laboratories. 

This rare quality enabled the act of cultivating her cells indefinitely.

This became known as the first immortalized human cell line – making it possible for scientists anywhere to reproduce studies using identical cells, according to the Associated Press. 

The remarkable science involved and the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom suffered from chronic illnesses without health insurance, were documented in a bestselling book by Rebecca Skloot, ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,’ and Oprah Winfrey portrayed her daughter in an HBO movie about the story.

Lacks was a tobacco farmer from Soother Virginia who died when she was 31 and was buried in an unmarked grave. She grew up poor and raised five children when doctors discovered a tumor in her cervix and saved a sample of her cancer cells collected during a biopsy.

Johns Hopkins has denied ever selling or profiting from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them.

Lacks´ adult grandchildren believe the case highlights a much larger issue that persists into the present day: racism inside the American medical system.

‘The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history,’ the complaint read. ‘Too often, the history of medical experimentation in the United States has been the history of medical racism.’

Share or comment on this article:

Henrietta Lacks’ family settles with biotech company that earned BILLIONS for using tissue taken from her without consent: Pivotal ‘HeLa’ cells led to the development of polio and covid vaccines

Share what you think

No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

Add your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?

Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual.

Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline?

Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual

We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook.

You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.