The family of a Baltimore woman whose cells were extracted for medical research without her consent 75 years ago has settled a lawsuit with Novartis, with terms of the agreement confidential, according to a joint statement from the parties.
The agreement ends litigation between the Swiss company and the estate of Henrietta Lacks, which filed a lawsuit in federal court in Baltimore against Novartis and Viatris in August 2024. The family was seeking a jury trial and the “full amount” of profits obtained through the companies’ use of the “stolen” cells, according to the complaint.
“Members of the family of Henrietta Lacks and Novartis are pleased they were able to find a way to resolve this matter filed by Henrietta Lacks’ Estate outside of court,” the parties wrote in a statement, adding that they “have no further comment on the settlement.”
The claim against Viatris remains active, along with a lawsuit the family filed against rare disease specialist Ultragenyx in 2023. In the latter case, the estate alleges the company made a “fortune” by using Lacks’ cells as a “factory” to make its gene therapy products.
Novartis is the second biopharma company to reach a settlement with the estate. In 2023, Thermo Fisher and the family resolved a two-year-old “unjust enrichment” lawsuit in another undisclosed agreement.
The lawsuits hearken back to an era when racism was rampant in the healthcare system. They also open difficult questions for courts to consider, as Lacks’ case traces to 1951, when doctors didn’t need patients' permission to harvest their cells.
Lacks was a young mother of three in Baltimore when she developed cervical cancer. Tissue taken from a biopsy at Johns Hopkins Hospital—before she died that same year at age 31—was saved and became the first human cells to grow and reproduce in lab dishes.
Dubbed HeLa cells, they became the first “immortal human cell line” and important building blocks for scientific studies around the world, leading to the discovery of the polio and COVID vaccines, breakthroughs in genetic mapping and scores of other medical innovations.
While Johns Hopkins never profited from HeLa cells, companies and other research organizations have developed thousands of patents using HeLa cells.
Novartis and Viatris have always been aware of the origin of Lacks’ cells, according to the lawsuits. In a 2021 website posting, the company cited Lacks’ story in announcing an initiative to address health disparities through “holistic community-based collective action.”
Among the products Novartis has developed using HeLa cells, according to the lawsuit, are herpes drug Famvir, CAR-T therapy Kymriah and gene therapy Zolgensma. Viatris treatments cited in the litigation include the depression drug mirtazapine and herpes drug Denavir.
The lawsuits came after author Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 best-seller "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," which led to a 2017 HBO movie of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey.