Henrietta Lacks's estate sues biotech firm over 'stolen' immortal cancer cells

The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of "a racially unjust medical system."

The estate's federal lawsuit says Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Mass., knowingly mass produced and sold tissue that was taken from Lacks's by doctors at the hospital.

The HeLa cells taken from the woman's tumour before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned and have been reproduced infinitely ever since. They have been used in countless scientific and medical innovations including the development of the polio vaccine and gene mapping.

Lacks's cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today, but lawyers for the family say the company has continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known.

"Thermo Fisher Scientific has known that HeLa cells were stolen from Ms. Lacks and chose to use her body for profit anyway," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit asks the court in Baltimore to order Thermo Fisher Scientific to "disgorge the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line to the Estate of Henrietta Lacks." It also seeks an order permanently enjoining Thermo Fisher Scientific from using the HeLa cell line without the estate's permission.

On its website, the company says it generates approximately $35 billion US in annual revenue. A company spokesperson reached didn't immediately comment on the lawsuit.