Thermo Fisher settles Henrietta Lacks lawsuit over ‘HeLa’ cell line

By Blake Brittain

(Reuters) – Laboratory (NYSE:) equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:) has settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells have fueled biomedical research for decades, lawyers for the estate said on Tuesday.

The story of Lacks, a young African-American woman who died in Baltimore in 1951, was made famous in Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 best-selling book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” which became a feature film in 2017.

Lacks’ estate sued Thermo Fisher in Baltimore federal court in 2021, asserting her family had “not seen a dime” of money that Thermo Fisher made from cultivating the “HeLa” line of cells that originated from tissue taken without Lacks’ consent during a medical procedure in 1951.

Terms of the agreement were confidential. Thermo Fisher and the estate’s attorneys, Ben Crump and Chris Seeger, said in a statement that they were pleased with the settlement.

The tissue sample that became the HeLa cell line was cut from Lacks’ cervix at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore without her knowledge during surgery to treat her cervical cancer. Lacks died of the disease at age 31.

The HeLa line, the first to survive and reproduce indefinitely in lab conditions, has since been used in a range of medical research worldwide, including to test the polio vaccine, research the effects of radiation on human cells, and develop a treatment for sickle-cell anemia.

The lawsuit accused Waltham, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher of unjust enrichment, arguing it illegally commercialized Lacks’ genetic material.

“Black suffering has fueled innumerable medical progress and profit, without just compensation or recognition,” the lawsuit said.

The estate asked the court to disgorge Thermo Fisher’s profit from commercializing HeLa cells and to block the company from using them without its permission.

Thermo Fisher told the court that the lawsuit was brought too late and that the estate failed to outline a valid unjust enrichment claim.