The fam­i­ly of a black woman whose im­mor­tal cells were un­eth­i­cal­ly tak­en from her at Johns Hop­kins hos­pi­tal in 1951 is now su­ing Ther­mo Fish­er Sci­en­tif­ic for prof­it­ing from the cells for decades.

The world-fa­mous cell line, known for Hen­ri­et­ta Lacks as HeLa and the sub­ject of a best­selling book about a decade ago, have proven to be in­cred­i­bly im­por­tant in hu­man his­to­ry, help­ing sci­en­tists to make ma­jor strides, from the po­lio vac­cine to in vit­ro fer­til­iza­tion.

But the fam­i­ly be­hind the cell line is tak­ing par­tic­u­lar is­sue with the prof­its Ther­mo Fish­er has made thanks to their an­ces­tor’s ge­net­ic ma­te­r­i­al.

“Ther­mo Fish­er Sci­en­tif­ic lit­er­al­ly sells Ms. Lacks’ cel­lu­lar ma­te­r­i­al, de­vel­ops and man­u­fac­tures cel­lu­lar prod­ucts in­cor­po­rat­ing HeLa cells, and seeks in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty rights on these prod­ucts, stak­ing a claim to the ge­net­ic ma­te­r­i­al of Ms. Lacks,” the suit filed in Mary­land dis­trict court on Mon­day says. “Ther­mo Fish­er Sci­en­tif­ic has ap­pro­pri­at­ed Ms. Lacks’ ge­net­ic ma­te­r­i­al for its own pe­cu­niary gain, all with­out pay­ment, per­mis­sion, or ap­proval from the Lacks Es­tate or fam­i­ly.”

While Johns Hop­kins has main­tained that it nev­er prof­it­ed from the cell line, the fam­i­ly has pre­vi­ous­ly sought pay­ment from the uni­ver­si­ty for use of the line. The es­tate’s suit against Ther­mo al­so notes the com­pa­ny’s in­tent “to prof­it from the un­law­ful con­duct” of the Johns Hop­kins doc­tors.

Erin O’Shea

“Ther­mo Fish­er Sci­en­tif­ic’s choice to con­tin­ue sell­ing HeLa cells in spite of the cell lines’ ori­gin and the con­crete harms it in­flicts on the Lacks fam­i­ly can on­ly be un­der­stood as a choice to em­brace a lega­cy of racial in­jus­tice em­bed­ded in the US re­search and med­ical sys­tems. Black peo­ple have the right to con­trol their bod­ies. And yet Ther­mo Fish­er Sci­en­tif­ic treats Hen­ri­et­ta Lacks’ liv­ing cells as chat­tel to be bought and sold,” the suit says.

The suit comes as the Howard Hugh­es Med­ical In­sti­tute in Mary­land gave the Hen­ri­et­ta Lacks Foun­da­tion a six-fig­ure gift in 2020, with HH­MI pres­i­dent Erin O’Shea ac­knowl­edg­ing “that we have a long way to go be­fore sci­ence and med­i­cine are re­al­ly eq­ui­table.”

At a press con­fer­ence in Bal­ti­more on Mon­day, one of the fam­i­ly’s lawyers al­so said re­lat­ed claims may be filed against oth­er com­pa­nies prof­it­ing from the HeLa line, ac­cord­ing to the As­so­ci­at­ed Press.

Janet Woodcock may have one of the most historically long and drug-intense tenures in FDA history, but her new role is outside of all things pharma and the once-acting FDA commissioner isn’t looking back.

“No I really don’t look back,” Woodcock told Endpoints News via email on Monday morning. “Yes I will be transitioning. Longer discussion on infrastructure needed.”

Pfizer has agreed to pay $290,000 to settle allegations of questionable copay coupon practices in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and Vermont from 2014 to 2018.

While the company has not admitted any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, Pfizer has agreed to issue restitution checks to about 5,000 consumers.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company has “enhanced its co-pay coupons to alleviate the concerns raised by states and agreed to a $30,000 payment to each.”

A judge in Delaware has ruled against Astellas Pharma and Gilead in a long-running patent case over Pfizer-onwed Hospira’s generic version of Lexiscan.

The case kicked off in 2018, after Hospira submitted an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for approval to market a generic version of Gilead’s Lexiscan. The drug is used in myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), a type of nuclear stress test.

The area of Ireland famous for Blarney Castle and its cliffsides along the Atlantic Ocean is seeing Merck KGaA expand its commitment there.

The German drug manufacturer is expanding its membrane and filtration manufacturing capabilities in Ireland. The company will invest approximately €440 million ($470 million) to increase membrane manufacturing capacity in Carrigtwohill, Ireland, and build a new manufacturing facility at Blarney Business Park, in County Cork, Ireland.

Twenty House Democrats, including Reps. Katie Porter of California and Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, are calling on Senate leaders to move quickly with a reconciliation bill (meaning they only need a simple majority for passage) with prescription drug pricing reforms, and to include adding new authority for Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

They also called on the Senate to specifically follow suit with the House passage of a $35 per month insulin cap (as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s deadline for a vote on that provision has come and gone), and to cap Medicare Part D costs at $2,000 per year for seniors.

As the cases of monkeypox now sit at well over 100 worldwide and have spread to multiple continents, the orders for any type of vaccine against monkeypox are seeing nations and medical bodies looking to get their hands on anything and everything. And now SIGA Technologies seems to be getting in on the action.

According to Euronews, SIGA Technologies, a pharmaceutical company that is focused on providing medical countermeasures to biological and chemical attacks, is now in talks with several European authorities looking to stockpile its antiviral that can counter monkeypox. The drug known as tecovirimat or Tpoxx was approved by the FDA in 2018 as a vaccine for smallpox but was approved by the European Medicines Agency to also act against monkeypox, cowpox and complications from immunization with vaccinia.