TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on May 24, 2024

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland on Monday ruled that the estate of Henrietta Lacks can move forward with a lawsuit against biopharmaceutical company Ultragenyx. Reuters reports that cancer cells (now known as "HeLa cells") were cut from Lacks' cervix without her knowledge during a cancer-treatment procedure at a Baltimore hospital in 1951. The cell line was the first to survive and reproduce indefinitely in lab conditions and has been used in a wide range of medical research worldwide. The lawsuit claims that Ultragenyx wrongly profited from its research using the "immortal" HeLa cell line. The estate previously sued Thermo Fisher Scientific for its alleged misuse of the HeLa line in a case that settled last year.