Henrietta Lacks’ family sues biotech company for cells, says she “chose to use her body for profit”

Henrietta Lacks’ estate sued a biotech company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent under of a “racially unjust medical system”.

The federal estate lawsuit says Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Mass., Knowingly mass-produced and sold tissue taken from Lacks by doctors at the hospital.

HeLa cells taken from a woman’s tumor before her death from cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned and have reproduced endlessly since then. They have been used in countless scientific and medical innovations, including polio vaccine development and genetic mapping.

Lacks cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used today in medicine and scientific research, but lawyers for the family say the company continued to market the results long after the origins of the HeLa cell line have become well known.

“Thermo Fisher Scientific knew HeLa cells had been stolen from Ms. Lacks and chose to use her body for profit anyway,” the lawsuit says.

Among the family’s estate attorneys is Ben Crump, a Florida-based civil rights attorney. Crump has gained national notoriety in recent years for representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd – black people whose deaths at the hands of police and vigilantes helped revitalize a national movement towards reform police and racial justice.

“We want to make sure the voice of the family is finally heard after 70 years of ignorance,” Crump told CBSN on Monday. “American drug companies have a shameful history of profiting from research into the use and exploitation of black people, their diseases and their bodies.”

The lawsuit asks the Baltimore court to order Thermo Fisher Scientific to “return the full amount of its net profits obtained by marketing the HeLa cell line to the estate of Henrietta Lacks.” He is also seeking an order permanently banning Thermo Fisher Scientific from using the HeLa cell line without the permission of the estate.

On its website, the company says it generates around $ 35 billion in annual revenue. A company spokesperson attached did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

HeLa cells were discovered to have unique properties. While most of the cell samples died shortly after being removed from the body, its cells survived and thrived in the labs. This exceptional quality allowed her cells to be cultivated indefinitely – they became known as the first immortalized human cell line – allowing scientists to replicate studies using identical cells everywhere.

The remarkable science involved – and the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom suffered from chronic illnesses without health insurance – was documented in a bestselling book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack.” Oprah Winfrey portrayed her daughter in a HBO movie about the story. The lawsuit was filed exactly 70 years after the day of his death, October 4, 1951.

A group of white Johns Hopkins doctors in the 1950s attacked black women with cervical cancer, cutting tissue samples from their patients ‘cervixes without or without their patients’ knowledge. their consent, according to the lawsuit.

“The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the sadly common struggle experienced by blacks throughout history,” says the lawsuit. “Indeed, the suffering of blacks has fueled countless medical advancements and profits, without fair compensation or recognition. Various studies, both documented and undocumented, have thrived on the dehumanization of blacks.”

Johns Hopkins Medicine has said it has examined his interactions with Lacks and his family for more than 50 years after the 2010 publication of Rebecca Skloot’s book. He says he “never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells and does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line,” but he acknowledged ethical responsibility.

“At several points over these decades we have seen that Johns Hopkins could – and should have – done more to educate and work with Henrietta Lacks’ family members out of respect for them, their privacy and their interests. personal, ”Johns Hopkins Medicine said. said on its website.