Novartis Settles With Lacks' Estate Over Her 'Stolen' Cells

Novartis has settled a lawsuit by the estate of Henrietta Lacks that alleged the pharmaceutical giant unjustly profited off her cells, which were taken from a tumor without her knowledge in 1951 and reproduced in labs to enable major medical advancements, including the polio vaccine. Details of the agreement, which was finalized in federal court in Maryland this month, aren't public. The Lacks family and Switzerland-based Novartis said in a joint statement that they are "pleased" they were able to find a way "to resolve this matter filed by Henrietta Lacks' Estate outside of court," but they aren't commenting further, per the AP.

It's the second settlement in lawsuits filed by the estate that accused biomedical businesses of reaping rewards from a racist medical system that took advantage of Black patients like Lacks. The settlement ends litigation between Novartis, one of the world's largest pharma companies, and the estate of Lacks, a mother who died of cervical cancer at age 31 and was buried in an unmarked grave. The 2024 lawsuit had sought from Novartis "the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line," which the complaint said had been cultivated from "stolen cells."

Lacks was a poor Virginia tobacco farmer raising five children when doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital discovered a tumor in her cervix in 1951 and saved a sample of her cancer cells collected during a biopsy, without her knowledge. The tissue taken from her tumor before she died became the first human cells to continuously grow and reproduce in lab dishes. HeLa cells became a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless innovations, including COVID-19 vaccines, but the Lacks family wasn't compensated. Johns Hopkins said it never sold or profited from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them.

In 2023, Lacks' estate reached an undisclosed settlement with the biotech firm Thermo Fisher Scientific. There are other pending lawsuits by the Lacks estate, and attorneys for the family have indicated there could be additional complaints filed. The remarkable science involved—and the impact on the Lacks family, some of whom had chronic illnesses and no health insurance—were documented in a bestselling book by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which was published in 2010. Oprah Winfrey portrayed Lacks' daughter in an HBO movie about the story.