Verdicts & Settlements
Biotech firm settles swimsuit claiming unauthorized use of Henrietta Lacks’ regenerative cells
In keeping with a lawsuit filed by members of the family in October 2021, Henrietta Lacks’ tumor tissue was eliminated with out consent throughout a 1951 operation for cervical most cancers in a segregated ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Photograph by Emw, CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0, by way of Wikimedia Commons.
A biotech firm accused of benefiting from its unauthorized use of a Black girl’s regenerative cells has settled a lawsuit filed by her household.
Particulars of the settlement between the household of Henrietta Lacks and Thermo Fisher Scientific are confidential, report the Baltimore Banner, the New York Times, Reuters and the Washington Post. The decision was introduced Tuesday on what would have been Lacks’ 103rd birthday.
In keeping with the swimsuit filed by members of the family in October 2021, Lacks’ tumor tissue was eliminated with out consent throughout a 1951 operation for cervical most cancers in a segregated ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The tissue grew to become the primary human cell line to be reproduced exterior the physique, serving to researchers develop vaccines for polio and COVID-19 and therapy for sickle cell anemia.
Johns Hopkins Hospital has mentioned it didn’t revenue from the so-called HeLa cells that it gave away at no cost. Lacks died regardless of the operation at age 31.
Thermo Fisher Scientific had sought to dismiss the swimsuit on the bottom that Lacks’ household waited too lengthy to sue. The statute-of-limitations argument remained unresolved when the settlement was reached, in response to the Washington Submit.
A lawyer who represents Lacks’ members of the family, Benjamin L. Crump, mentioned on the information convention Black ladies have completed a lot to assist construct America, in response to the Baltimore Banner.
“However all people in America doesn’t know who Henrietta Lacks is, and that’s an injustice,” Crump mentioned. “And that’s why we’re preventing. As a result of Black historical past is American historical past. Henrietta Lacks is American historical past.”
One other lawyer who represented members of the family, Christopher Ayers of Seeger Weiss, indicated at a information convention Tuesday that claims might be introduced towards different firms, in response to Baltimore Banner.
“These firms revenue at present,” Ayers mentioned. “If they will revenue at present, they will present compensation at present.”
