Novartis, Viatris latest targets of Henrietta Lacks lawsuits

Novartis and Viatris have become the latest pharma companies to be named in lawsuits claiming that they profited from the unlawful use of HeLa cells derived from cells taken from a cancer patient in the 1950s.

The latest lawsuit brought by the family of Henrietta Lacks, filed in a federal court in Maryland, names Novartis Pharma, Novartis Gene Therapies, and Viatris, which was formerly known as Mylan before merging with Pfizer's Upjohn in 2020.

They are accused of unauthorised commercialisation of the HeLa cell line, which has been used extensively in medical research and drug development for decades, without her or her family's consent. Neither company is prepared to comment on ongoing litigation.

Previous actions have been filed against Ultragenyx, whose attempt to have the case dismissed before it came to court was dismissed by a judge in Baltimore in May, as well as Thermo Fisher Scientific, which settled a similar case for an undisclosed sum in August 2023.

According to the legal team bringing the complaint, Novartis and Viatris made "conscious choices" to commercialise the HeLa cell line, generating "substantial profits while being fully aware of the unethical origins of the cells."

Lacks was aged 31 and a mother of five when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951. She died soon after in a segregated ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital, unaware that a sample of her cancer cells had been taken for use in research - becoming the first cells able to be grown continuously in a lab.

It was not illegal to take patient samples without permission at the time, but the drugmakers are accused of profiting off of HeLa-derived products long after their origins became well known. Johns Hopkins has said it did not profit from the use of the cells.

Specifically, the new lawsuit claims Novartis used HeLa cells in the development of antiviral drug Famvir (famciclovir) for herpes, CAR-T cell therapy Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) for cancer, and spinal muscular atrophy gene therapy Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec). Viatris is accused of using the cells in the development of Denavir (penciclovir), another herpes therapy, and antidepressant mirtazapine.

"Novartis has acknowledged the story of Henrietta Lacks on its website, yet continues to benefit from the use of her genetic material without seeking permission or providing compensation to her estate," said the Lacks family attorneys Ben Crump and Christopher Seeger in a statement.

"Similarly, Viatris and its subsidiary Mylan Pharmaceuticals have heavily relied on HeLa cells for drug development, accelerating their research and increasing their profitability."

The lawsuit is asking for profits derived from the use of these cells to be rightfully transferred to the estate of Henrietta Lacks.

Image by Doc. RNDr. Josef Reischig, CSc. via Wikimedia