Family of Henrietta Lacks files new lawsuit over cells harvested without her consent
The family of Henrietta Lacks has filed another lawsuit accusing a second company of unjustly profiting off her cells for generations
BALTIMORE — Just over a week after Henrietta Lacks’ descendants settled a lawsuit against a biotech company they accused of unjustly profiting off her cells for generations, the family’s attorneys have filed another claim against a different corporation.
The new lawsuit, which targets California-based biopharmaceutical company Ultragenyx, was filed Thursday in Baltimore federal court, the same venue as the recently settled case. Lawyers for the family have said they plan to bring a series of lawsuits against various entities that continue to reap rewards from the racist medical system that took advantage of Lacks.
A Black mother of five from southern Virginia, Lacks and her family were living outside Baltimore when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951. Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital saved a sample of her cancer cells collected during a biopsy — without her knowledge or consent.
She died at age 31 in the hospital’s “colored ward,” but her genetic material lived on, the first human cells to continuously grow and reproduce in lab dishes. HeLa cells have since become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 shots.
The complaint says Ultragenyx has made a fortune by using HeLa cells to develop gene therapy products.
“Medical research has a long, troubled racial history,” attorneys for the family wrote. “The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout American history. Indeed, Black
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