The family of Henrietta Lacks has launched a new lawsuit against two multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies for using her genetic material without her consent.
The living relatives of Lacks are suing Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Novartis Gene Therapies, Inc., as well as Viatris, Inc. and its subsidiary Mylan Pharmaceuticals, in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, claiming the companies have developed hundreds of patents using the “stolen” HeLa cell line and amassed huge profits doing so.
The lawsuit calls for the profits derived from the use of these cells to be “rightfully transferred” to the estate of Henrietta Lacks.
“Novartis and Viatris made conscious choices to commercialize the living genetic material of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman, grandmother, and community leader whose tissue was taken without her knowledge or consent by doctors she trusted with her life,” Chris Ayers, an attorney at Seeger Weiss LLP representing the Lacks family, said in a statement sent to IFLScience.
“We will continue to pursue justice for Mrs. Lacks and her family,” added Ayers.
Henrietta Lacks passed away from cervical cancer at the age of 31 on October 4, 1951 – although some of her cells continue to live on today. Just before her death, a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital took a sample of her cervical cells without her knowledge during a cancer assessment. It was observed that her cells kept reproducing rapidly, long after cells from almost all other samples would have died outside their host.
Recognizing the potential, scientists found these cells could be a cost-effective and easy-to-use resource for expanding research capabilities. Named the “HeLa immortal cell line”, these cells have become an invaluable asset for biomedical research.
Approximately 55 million tons of these cells have been used in over 75,000 scientific studies around the world, playing an essential role in advances like the polio vaccines, treatments for cancer, HIV, AIDS, and much more.
However, all of this was achieved without Lacks’ knowledge or consent. Her family was also unaware of the cells’ commercial use for many years.
The commercialization of HeLa cells raises serious questions about medical ethics and genetics. It also highlights ongoing issues of medical racism against disenfranchised minorities, as Lacks was a Black woman living in 1950s America.
Despite the widespread awareness of these controversies, the HeLa cells continue to be used in commercial medical research – and help to make some corporations a lot of money.
“The world now knows the story of Henrietta Lacks, which makes it all the more shocking, though not surprising, that pharmaceutical giants Novartis and Viatris continue to profit off the deeply unethical origins of HeLa cells and the disturbing history of medical racism,” explained Chris Seeger, another lawyer representing the family.
In 2023, the family of Lacks reached a historic agreement after filing a lawsuit against another biotech company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., in the US District Court for the District of Baltimore. At the time, the attorneys indicated that the settlement was just the tip of the iceberg and there could potentially be dozens more lawsuits involving the use of HeLa cells.
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