THERMO FISHER SETTLES LAWSUIT OVER CANCER CELLS

Thermo Fisher Scientific has settled a federal lawsuit by the family of Henrietta Lacks (below) that accused the Waltham-based firm of unjustly making billions of dollars from her cancer cells, which were taken without consent 72 years ago and used by researchers worldwide. Lacks’s cells have led to medical breakthroughs that include treatments for AIDS, leukemia, and influenza, as well as the creation of the polio vaccine and research on the effects of zero gravity in space. The terms of the settlement were confidential, according to the company and lawyers for the family. Thermo Fisher is one of the world’s largest makers of scientific tools and the most valuable publicly traded company based in Massachusetts, with a market cap of about $210 billion. Both sides issued an identical one paragraph statement on the agreement. “The parties are pleased that they were able to find a way to resolve this matter outside of Court, and will have no further comment about the settlement,” it said. Lacks’s cells were taken at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951 when she underwent treatment for cervical cancer. They were eventually used to create a cell line named after her, HeLa (pronounced hee-la). It is the most prolific and widely used human cell line in biology. Thermo Fisher said in an unsuccessful motion to dismiss the suit in January that among its more than 100,000 products, “a handful are HeLa-related.” But it said HeLa cells were first commercialized by others almost immediately after a Johns Hopkins researcher obtained them. Thermo Fisher argued that the family filed suit long after a statute of limitations had expired. Lacks’s descendants — including two grandsons — and their legal team announced the settlement Tuesday outside US District Court in Baltimore. It came on what would have been the 103rd birthday of Lacks, a Black tobacco farmer who died at 31 in 1951.