Novartis Reaches Settlement Over Henrietta Lacks’ Cell Line
Novartis, a global pharmaceutical giant, has resolved a significant lawsuit brought forth by the estate of Henrietta Lacks. The legal action alleged that the company had unjustly profited from Lacks’ cells, which were harvested from her tumour without her consent in 1951. These cells, famously known as the HeLa cell line, proved to be revolutionary, enabling groundbreaking medical advancements including the development of the polio vaccine.
While the specific financial terms of the agreement, finalised in a federal court in Maryland this month, remain confidential, both the Lacks family and the Swiss-based Novartis issued a joint statement. They expressed their satisfaction in finding a mutually agreeable resolution to the matter, which was initiated by Henrietta Lacks’ Estate outside of formal court proceedings. No further comments have been provided by either party.
This marks the second major settlement for the Lacks estate in its ongoing legal campaign against biomedical corporations. The lawsuits contend that these businesses have reaped substantial rewards from a deeply flawed medical system that historically exploited Black patients, with Henrietta Lacks being a prominent example. The resolution with Novartis brings to a close the litigation against one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical firms and the estate of a woman who tragically died of cervical cancer at the young age of 31, and was initially buried in an unmarked grave.
The 2024 lawsuit against Novartis had specifically sought “the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line,” which the estate’s complaint described as having been cultivated from “stolen cells.”
The story of Henrietta Lacks is a poignant reminder of the ethical complexities at the heart of scientific discovery. In 1951, physicians at Johns Hopkins Hospital obtained a sample of Lacks’ cervical cells during a biopsy, without her knowledge or permission. These cells, taken from her cancerous tumour, possessed an extraordinary characteristic: unlike most human cells that perish shortly after removal from the body, Lacks’ cells continued to grow and multiply in laboratory settings. This remarkable ability to reproduce indefinitely in culture dishes led to their designation as the first immortalised human cell line, a development that has profoundly impacted modern medicine.
The HeLa cell line has been instrumental in a vast array of scientific and medical breakthroughs. Its contributions span from the foundational work in genetic mapping to the development of crucial treatments and, more recently, to the rapid creation of COVID-19 vaccines. Despite this incalculable impact on global health and scientific progress, the Lacks family received no compensation for the use of her cells throughout this entire period.
Johns Hopkins Hospital has maintained that it never directly sold or profited from the HeLa cell lines themselves. However, numerous companies have since patented various methods and applications utilising these cells, thereby generating significant revenue.
This settlement with Novartis follows a similar undisclosed settlement reached in 2023 with the biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. In that case, the legal team representing the Lacks family argued that Thermo Fisher Scientific continued to commercialise products derived from the HeLa cell line long after the origins of the cells became widely known. They asserted that the company had unjustly enriched itself at the expense of Henrietta Lacks and her descendants.
The legal efforts of the Lacks estate are far from over. Just over a week after the Thermo Fisher Scientific settlement, attorneys for the estate initiated a new lawsuit against Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical. This action was filed in the same Baltimore federal court where the previous case was resolved. Litigation against Ultragenyx, as well as another pharmaceutical company, Viatris, remains ongoing. The family’s legal representatives have indicated that further complaints may be filed in the future.
Henrietta Lacks was a woman of humble origins, working as a tobacco farmer in rural southern Virginia. She later relocated with her husband to Turner Station, a predominantly Black community located outside Baltimore. It was while raising their five children that doctors diagnosed a tumour on her cervix and subsequently collected a sample of her cancer cells during a biopsy.
The ability of Lacks’ cells to thrive and reproduce in a laboratory setting was a scientific anomaly. This characteristic made them the first immortalised human cell line, a discovery that revolutionised scientific research. It meant that scientists across the globe could reliably reproduce experiments using identical cell samples, fostering consistency and accelerating the pace of discovery.
The profound scientific implications and the deeply personal impact on the Lacks family, some of whom grappled with chronic illnesses and lacked adequate health insurance, were brought to public attention through Rebecca Skloot’s bestselling book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” published in 2010. The story was further amplified by an HBO film adaptation, with Oprah Winfrey portraying Henrietta Lacks’ daughter.
