The Washington Post
Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
The heirs of Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman who died in the 1950s and whose cells have been reproduced for decades in scientific research, filed suit Thursday in Baltimore federal court alleging that a pharmaceutical company profited from using cells without the consent of Lacks or her family.
The action comes almost two weeks after Lacks's descendants settled litigation with another biotech company that had allegedly profited from the cells despite knowing that they were extracted without her consent. Terms of the litigation were not released.
Thursday's suit asks a court to force Ultragenyx, a California-based company that focuses on the development and commercialization of products for rare and genetic diseases, to stop the use of Lacks's cell line without the permission of her family; to create a "trust" for the cells in possession; to reveal the profits earned from use of the cells; and to provide financial relief.
Lacks was a Baltimore mother of five when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 at age 31. A Johns Hopkins Hospital doctor took a sample from her tumor without her consent and passed it to researchers as she was being treated in a segregated hospital ward.
The researchers soon discovered that the cells in her sample had a remarkable ability to grow outside the human body, opening up a universe of medical research. Johns Hopkins shared the "HeLa" cells with other researchers, which led to the development of vaccines for polio and the coronavirus, among other treatments.
Lacks died soon after her diagnosis.
The lawsuit, filed by civil rights attorney Ben Crump and co-counsel Christopher Seeger, charges Ultragenyx with a single cause of action - unjust enrichment - for what the attorneys say is the company's choice to profit from the unlawful conduct of Johns Hopkins's doctors, making the company liable for its profits as a "conscious wrongdoer."
"Ultragenyx's choice to continue utilizing HeLa cells despite the cell line's origin and the concrete harm it inflicts on the Lacks family can only be understood as a choice to embrace a legacy of racial injustice embedded in the U.S. research and medical systems," Crump said in a statement.
Ultragenyx did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Ultragenyx reported $108.3 million in total revenue for the second quarter of 2023, which the company said represented 21 percent growth over the second quarter of 2022.
Earlier this month, Lacks's descendants settled a similar claim against another biotech company. The litigation had accused Thermo Fisher of using Lacks's cells without approval from or payment to her family members - thus depriving them of billions of dollars and "the knowledge that a loved one's body has been treated with respect."
In court filings, attorneys for Thermo Fisher had sought to have the lawsuit dismissed primarily on statute-of-limitations grounds, arguing that the Lacks family and their attorneys over the years had waited too long to sue the company. That effort was pending when the settlement was reached, according to court records.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.