Thermo Fisher Scientific Sued By Representatives Of Henrietta Lacks' Descendants... For Failure To Pay Royalties, On Her IP (The HeLa Cell Lines)

We have covered the almost-unimaginably rich-in-discoveries legacy that flows directly from Ms. Henrietta Lacks (a polio vaccine, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization, to name but a few). More precisely, these wonders flow from the use of her in-vivo "immortal cell-lines" (scraped from inside her uterus, without her knowlege, or consent, at Johns Hopkins -- over 70 years ago); we've covered that story, for over a decade here. It was thought, in 2015, that Johns Hopkins had reached an agreement with the estate, and the living descendants (now fourth- and fifth-generation) to forestall any suits. . . but that seems now. . . not to be the case.

The suit is pending in federal court in Maryland, where many of her descendants still call home. Thermo Fisher is located in Waltham, Mass. We will keep an eye on this, for the readership -- as it raises profound ethical and legal questions, about informed consent and fair compensation for one's own IP embedded in living tissue -- cell lines. Here is The Guardian (UK) story, where I first saw this latest development:

. . .The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a pharmaceutical company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins hospital took in 1951 without her knowledge or consent.

The “HeLa cell line became the first human cells successfully cloned” and have since been used continually “for research that has touched nearly every realm of medicine”, lawyers for the estate said in a news release.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, of Waltham, Massachusetts, knowingly mass-produced and sold tissue that was taken from Lacks by doctors at the hospital and “a racially unjust medical system”, the federal lawsuit alleges. . . .

Do stay tuned. While the statutory law here may be thin, there is a strong equitable (common law) and / or moral argument, that Thermo Fisher Scientific owes. . . some form of ongoing royalty, on the revenue from the HeLa lines -- or an imputed royalty, if the company makes the cell-culture lines available "free," in return for ancillary revenue-generating lab services / or other accessories.

नमस्ते