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Family of Henrietta Lacks reaches third Big Pharma settlement
Attorney Ben Crump, at right, stands with members of Henrietta Lacks' family at a May 2022 news conference. From second right is Lacks' son, Lawrence Lacks, and her grandsons, Alfred Carter Jr. and Ron Lacks. (The Daily Record file photo)
Family of Henrietta Lacks reaches third Big Pharma settlement
Listen to this articleThe estate of Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman from Baltimore whose cancer cells fueled scientific discovery and profit for Big Pharma, has reached a settlement with a third pharmaceutical company, less than two weeks after it agreed to the second.
The Lacks estate settled with Pennsylvania-based Viatris on March 11, court records show. The terms were confidential, just as they were when it settled with Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2023 and Novartis earlier this month.
Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer and was admitted to a segregated ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. Doctors took cells without her consent, and they unexpectedly reproduced. Since then, the HeLa cell line has been critical in many medical advancements, from which pharmaceutical companies have profited.
Lacks died later in 1951, and her family didn’t learn for decades how her cells had been used.
The latest settlement also ends the family’s claims against Mylan Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Viatris.
Filed in August 2024, the family’s lawsuit against Novartis and Viatris, like its suits against other companies, alleged unjust enrichment.
One more unjust-enrichment case by the Lacks family against a pharmaceutical company is ongoing in Maryland federal court. That one, filed in August 2023, is against Ultragenyx. Litigation resumed in February after unsuccessful settlement talks.
The estate’s personal representative is Ron L. Sacks, one of Henrietta Lacks’ grandsons. The estate was represented in court by Baltimore lawyer Kim Parker, two New Jersey-based firms and the prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.
