Ms. Lacks’s family had accused Thermo Fisher Scientific of profiting from her cells, which have contributed to revolutionary advances in medicine, without seeking their permission.
The family of Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose cancer cells were taken without consent and used to pioneer numerous medical discoveries, reached a settlement on Monday with a biotechnology company that had used the cells.
In a lawsuit filed in October 2021, descendants of Ms. Lacks, who died decades ago, accused the company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, of selling the cells and trying to secure intellectual property rights on the products the cells were used to help develop without compensating the family or seeking their permission or approval.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, lawyers for both parties said in a statement.
Thermo Fisher, a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, and the legal team for Ms. Lacks’s family released identical statements announcing the settlement.
“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,” the statements said.
Ms. Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1951 when a sample of her cells were taken without her knowledge. The cell line named for her, HeLa, became the cornerstone of many medical and scientific innovations, including vaccines for polio and the coronavirus. But Ms. Lacks died that same year, and her family did not know about her contribution to medical science for more than two decades.
