Henrietta Lacks’ Estate Sues for Profits Derived From Tissue

The estate of a woman who represents how Black patients have been exploited by the medical establishment sued a large biotechnology firm for the money it made by selling products derived from her tissue.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. “made staggering profits” off of tissue taken from Henrietta Lacks during cervical cancer-related surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951, a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleges.

The company recorded revenue of $32.22 billion in 2020 alone, long after it learned the “HeLa” cells were “stolen” from Lacks, the estate says. But neither Lacks, who ...