{"id":653848,"date":"2026-03-14T00:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/653848\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T00:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:21:24","slug":"henrietta-lacks-estate-settles-third-lawsuit-with-a-pharmaceutical-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/653848\/","title":{"rendered":"Henrietta Lacks\u2019 estate settles third lawsuit with a pharmaceutical company"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of Henrietta Lacks<\/a> has settled a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania-based generic drug maker Viatris, which it had alleged unlawfully profited from Lacks\u2019 stolen \u201cimmortal\u201d cells.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the third settlement against a pharmaceutical company that developed treatments and other medical advancements from cells that were taken from Lacks\u2019 cancerous tumor without her knowledge in 1951 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. <\/p>\n

The cells became known known as the HeLa cell line and have contributed to multiple medical advancements such as polio and COVID-19 vaccines and research into cancer and AIDS. <\/p>\n

They are known as immortal because normally human cells die quickly outside the body, but Lacks\u2019 were the first to divide indefinitely in the lab. <\/p>\n

Family attorney Ben Crump said in a statement that the terms of the settlement were confidential and that there would be no further comment. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust as we commented after the historic settlements with Thermo-Fisher and Novartis, members of the family of Henrietta Lacks and Viatris are pleased they were able to find a way to resolve this matter, filed by Henrietta Lacks\u2019 Estate, outside of court,\u201d Crump said.<\/p>\n

Viatris did not immediately respond to request for comment. <\/p>\n

The family settled in February with Novartis <\/a>and in 2023 with Thermo Fisher Scientific<\/a>. It has a pending lawsuit against Ultragenyx Pharmaceuticals. <\/p>\n

The case against Viatris, filed in August 2024, was closed in the U.S. District Court of Maryland on Thursday after months of settlement talks. <\/p>\n

Lawyers have argued that taking Lacks\u2019 tissue for research was part of a conspiracy against Black women in racially segregated wards throughout the 1950s. <\/p>\n

\"HenriettaHenrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old mother of five, died of cervical cancer on Oct. 4, 1951. (Courtesy of the Henrietta Lacks estate)<\/p>\n

The procedure at Hopkins rendered Lacks infertile but didn\u2019t stop the spread of her cervical cancer, which ultimately caused her death in 1951. <\/p>\n

Hopkins has not been accused of wrongdoing, and officials have said the hospital never sold or profited from the discovery of the HeLa cells and doesn\u2019t own any rights. It has worked with the Lacks\u2019 family to honor her contributions to research and health through scholarships and an annual symposium. It named a building after her on its East Baltimore medical campus in 2024.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Congress passed the Henrietta Lacks Enhancing Cancer Research Act in 2021 to require study of how agencies address barriers to participating in federally funded cancer clinical trials by underrepresented groups and provide recommendations to address barriers.<\/p>\n

And members of Maryland\u2019s congressional delegation have sought to posthumously grant Lack a Congressional Gold Medal for her contributions to science. <\/p>\n

Lacks\u2019 lawyers have said they would continue to pursue pharmaceutical companies<\/a> they said used the cells that have become critical to many areas of research as a matter of justice for the family and as a matter of racial and medical justice. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike anyone else, Black people have the right to control their bodies,\u201d Crump said in a statement in 2024 at the time of filing a lawsuit against Ultragenyx. \u201cJust as Ultragenyx takes advantage of Henrietta Lacks\u2019 immortal cell line, they also take advantage of vulnerable individuals with rare illnesses by price gouging them for essential treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of Henrietta Lacks has settled a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania-based generic drug maker Viatris, which it…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":653849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[150845,210,1141,1142,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-653848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-featured-imagepair","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116224674289462155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}