On Monday, October 4, the estate of Henrietta Lacks sued biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for selling HeLa cells taken from her in 1951 by doctors in Johns Hopkins Hospital before she died. According to NPR's report, the estate cited that the at was part of a "racially unjust medical system."
Known as the HeLa cells, her tissues were infinitely reproduced since it was taken from her tumor. It has become a cornerstone of modern medicine, which helped in countless innovations. This includes the development of polio vaccines, genetic mapping, and COVID-19 vaccines.
Henrietta Lacks: The Legend of HeLa Cells
Henrietta Lacks was a young mother of five when she first arrived in the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. In an article written on the hospital's website, it says that she went to the hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding and was diagnosed with a large, malignant tumor on her cervix.
Mrs. Lacks was treated with radium treatments, which is the best medical treatment for the disease at that based on her medical records. During her biopsy, a sample of her cancer cells was retrieved and sent to the nearby tissue laboratory of Dr, George Gey who is prominent cancer and virus researcher.
He discovered that the cells of Mrs. Lacks were unlike any of the other cells he had ever seen because they reproduced every 20 to 24 hours, unlike other cells that would die.
Today, HeLa cells are used to study drugs, toxins, and hormones, and viruses without using cells from living humans. It is also used in understanding the effects of radiation and poisons, and learn how viruses work.
Biotechnology Sued by Henrietta Lacks' Estate
According to NPR, HeLa cells were harvested ad developed during the time when consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research were not yet in place. However, lawyers of the descendants of Henrietta Lacks said that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. continued to commercialize the cells after it became well known.
Ben Crump, one of the family's attorneys, said during a news conference on Monday that it is outrageous that the biotech company has the intellectual rights of Lacks' cells but not her own family and gets nothing from the profit they make, which amounts to billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, John Hopkins Hospital said that they never sold or profited from HeLa cells but many companies have patented ways of using the cells.
NBC News reported that the lawsuit asks the Baltimore court to order the company to "disgorge the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line to the Estate of Henrietta Lacks," and to permanently prohibit them from using the said cells without permission from the family.
On the company's website, it declared that it generates approximately $35 billion annually from the cells. However, they have yet to release an official statement regarding the lawsuit.
On the other hand, Johns Hopkins hospital shared on their website a summary of a significant shift in biomedical practices since 1951 and said that they have worked with the family since 2013 and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help create an agreement between them and scientists who wish to use the cells in scientific research.
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