Henrietta Lacks' family settle lawsuit with medical company that profited from her cells.

 Thermo Fisher Scientific has settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, a long-deceased cancer victim who died in the 1950's.

The settlement agreement came after closed-door negotiations that lasted all through Monday inside the federal courthouse in Baltimore, USA.

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. She died in the colored ward of John Hopkins hospital. A tissue sample that would become the HeLa cells was cut from her cervix during the surgery without her consent. Her story was made popular in 2010 by Rebecca Skloot in her book "The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks" and in 2017, Oprah Winfrey portrayed her daughter in a HBO movie.

HeLa cells are said to be the first cells to survive and reproduce indefinitely in lab conditions. These cells have been used for vast medical research including to test the polio vaccine, research the effects of radiation on human cells, and to develop the treatment of sickle-cell anaemia. 

Over the years, John Hopkins hospital have denied earning or profiting from her cells.

Henrietta's Estate sued Thermo Fisher in 2021 in Baltimore federal court. The estate claims that her family had “not seen a dime” of money that Thermo Fisher made from cultivating the HeLa line of cells.

The Estate has asked the court to cut-off Thermo Fisher’s profit from commercialising HeLa cells and to block the company from using them without its permission.