March 1 (UPI) -- The family of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were taken without her consent as she battled cervical cancer, settled a lawsuit with Novartis.
Lacks, who was just 31 when died in 1951 and buried in an unmarked grave, was receiving treatment in a Johns Hopkins Hospital segregated ward when her cells were harvested without her knowledge.
Her cells have since led to vaccines for polio, Covid-19 and HPV, as well as HIV/Aids, leukemia, Parkinson's and flu treatments.
"To the modern researcher, the fact that cells were taken and established into an immortalized, forever-growing cell line from a patient that didn't know that happened is astounding," Harvard Medical School associate professor Cigall Kadoch told the Boston Globe.
Her family filed a lawsuit against the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company in August, alleging that the company had used her cells for profit.
