Estate of woman whose cells were harvested without consent files lawsuit

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Henrietta Lacks cells harvesting lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Ron L. Lacks, personal representative of the estate of Henrietta Lacks, filed a lawsuit against Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. 
• Why: Henrietta Lacks’ estate claims Ultragenyx knowingly used cells harvested from her body without consent to create its “proprietary” gene therapy products. 
• Where: The lawsuit was filed in Maryland federal court. 

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical engaged in cell harvesting and commercialized living genetic material belonging to Henrietta Lacks despite knowing the tissue was taken from her without her consent or knowledge, a new lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Ron L. Lacks, who filed the complaint as a personal representative of Henrietta Lacks’ estate, claims Ultragenyx knew physicians at Johns Hopkins Hospital took tissue from the Black community leader without her consent. 

Henrietta Lacks’ estate argues Ultragenyx made a “fortune” by allegedly harvesting her cells to create its “proprietary” gene therapy products. 

“The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout American history,” the cell harvesting lawsuit states. 

Henrietta Lacks’ estate claims a white physician at a racially segregated ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital harvested her tissue in February 1951 while she was under anesthesia for a surgical procedure. 

“This surgical procedure to harvest Mrs. Lacks’s tissue was not medically necessary and was not an operation to which Mrs. Lacks had consented,” the lawsuit states. 

Henrietta Lacks’ harvested cells used to create first ‘immortalized human cell line,’ suit says

Henrietta Lacks’ estate argues her harvested cells survived and even reproduced after the physician removed them from her body, making it possible to cultivate them into a cell line that could “reproduce indefinitely” in a lab. 

Henrietta Lacks’ cells ultimately became the first “immortalized human cell line,” known today as the HeLa cell line, according to the cell harvesting lawsuit. 

“Upon information and belief, it was well understood within the scientific community that the cell line was the product of non-therapeutic medical experimentation on Black patients by physicians at Johns Hopkins,” the lawsuit states. 

Henrietta Lacks’ estate claims Ultragenyx is guilty of unjust enrichment. It demands a jury trial and requests the company be ordered to disgorge the full amount of its net profits from commercializing the HeLa cell line to the estate. 

The estate also asks Ultragenyx be permanently enjoined from using the HeLa cell line without its permission and requests a constructive trust in favor of the estate on all HeLa cells Ultragenyx and its acquisitions possess. 

In other medical news, consumers filed a number of class action lawsuits over claims of false advertising for over-the-counter medicinal products over the summer. 

Do you believe Ultragenyx used cells taken from Henrietta Lacks without her consent? Let us know in the comments. 

The plaintiffs are represented by Christopher A. Seeger, Christopher L. Ayers, Jeffrey S. Grand, Nigel P. Halliday and Hillary Fidler of Seeger Weiss LLP; Ben Crump, Christopher O’Neal and Nabeha Shaer of Ben Crump Law PLLC; and Kim Parker.

The Henrietta Lacks cell harvesting lawsuit is Lacks v. Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., Case No. 1:23-cv-02171, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Wegovy cuts risk of heart attack, stroke, drugmaker says
• Takeda reaches $42M settlement over ADHD drug marketing
• FDA approves first pill to treat postpartum depression
• Teva reaches $126M opioid settlement with hospitals