Just over a week ago, the descendants of Henrietta Lacks reached a settlement in a lawsuit against a biotech company that had unjustly profited from her cells for many years. Now, the family’s attorneys have filed another claim against a different corporation. This new lawsuit targets Ultragenyx, a biopharmaceutical company based in California. The lawsuit was filed in Baltimore federal court, the same venue as the previously settled case.
The family’s lawyers intend to bring a series of lawsuits against various entities that have benefited from the racist medical system that took advantage of Henrietta Lacks. Lacks, a Black mother of five from southern Virginia, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 while living outside Baltimore. Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital collected a sample of her cancer cells during a biopsy without her knowledge or consent. Lacks tragically passed away at the age of 31 in the hospital’s “colored ward,” but her cells continued to live on. They were the first human cells to grow and reproduce continuously in lab dishes, known as HeLa cells. These cells have been instrumental in numerous scientific and medical advancements, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping, and even COVID-19 shots.
According to the complaint, Ultragenyx has made a significant profit by using HeLa cells to develop gene therapy products. The family’s attorneys highlight the long history of racial exploitation in medical research and describe the unjust compensation and recognition that Black people have faced throughout American history. While it wasn’t illegal at the time to harvest cells without a patient’s permission, the lawsuit accuses Ultragenyx of continuing to commercialize the results long after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known. This claim of “unjust enrichment” resembles the recently settled lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific.
The terms of the settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific have not been disclosed. However, the lawsuit against Ultragenyx argues that the company’s leadership failed to seek permission from Henrietta Lacks’ descendants after discovering the origin of the HeLa cells. The attorneys argue that Ultragenyx’s decision to continue using these cells despite the harm it inflicts on the Lacks family is a choice to perpetuate racial injustice embedded in the US research and medical systems. They assert that Black individuals, like everyone else, have the right to control their bodies. At the time of this writing, Ultragenyx has not responded to requests for comment.
By filing this lawsuit, the descendants of Henrietta Lacks are seeking justice and calling attention to the systemic racism that has impacted Black individuals in the medical field for far too long.
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