Henrietta Lacks’ Family Settles Lawsuit Over Use of Famed Cells

The grandson of a woman whose “immortal cell line” led to medical breakthroughs such as the polio vaccine, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization has settled a lawsuit against a company that developed products using her biological material without permission or payment.

Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the US District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed the case Tuesday after Ron Lacks and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. told the court that they had reached a settlement agreement over profits the company earned after developing tools using Henrietta Lacks’ biological materials. The agreement’s terms weren’t disclosed.

Henrietta died in 1951. Her cell line—harvested by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital during cervical cancer surgery without her consent—is considered one of the most important in medical research.

Ron Lacks, as the representative of Henrietta’s estate, sued Thermo Fisher in 2021. He alleged that his grandmother’s cell line enabled the company to reap massive profits worldwide. None of those profits were ever shared with the Lacks or the estate, he said in a complaint invoking Maryland law, which allows suits for unjust enrichment to recover profits stemming from a breach of a confidential relationship or from tortious conduct.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital doctors acted wrongfully when they took Henrietta’s tissue during the 1951 surgery, the complaint said. Their actions were typical of the medical field’s “exploitation and dehumanization of Black people” at the time, it said.

Lacks’ story was the subject of a 2017 television movie starring Oprah Winfrey, based on the 2010 book entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

Ben Crump Law PLLC, Seeger Weiss LLP, and Law Offices of Kim Parker PA represent Lacks. Baker Botts LLP and Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC represent Thermo Fisher.

The case is Lacks v. Thermo Fisher Sci., Inc., D. Md., No. 21-cv-2524, 8/1/23.