Attorneys announced the settlement on what would have been Lacks' 103rd birthday.
Tuesday’s settlement announcement came one day after both sides were scheduled to meet for a settlement conference.
Unlike most cell samples, which die shortly after being removed from the body, Lacks’ cells could reproduce indefinitely in laboratory settings. Her cells became the first “immortal cell line,” identified by the first letters of Lacks’ name as the HeLa cell line. Researchers have used the line to develop several medical innovations, including the polio vaccine, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization.
In 2021, Lacks’ descendants filed suit against Thermo Fisher, accusing the company of unjust enrichment for its continued sale of HeLa cells despite knowing that they came from a cell sample that was taken without consent. The cells were taken from Lacks while she was being treated in a segregated ward for Black patients at John Hopkins Hospital, where white doctors took tissue samples without the consent of their patients, according to the Lacks family’s lawsuit.
“To this day, Thermo Fisher Scientific cultivates and sells HeLa cells in multiple product lines to buyers across the globe,” they said in the lawsuit.
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