On Aug. 5, 2024, Novartis and Viatris were named a federal lawsuit in Maryland by the family of a woman whose tissue cells were taken from her body in the 1950s and used to fuel medical research and development.

The estate of Henrietta Lacks accused Novartis and Viatris of unlawfully profiting from the use of the “HeLa” cells to create drugs that have been “integral to their market presence” without paying or gaining permission from her estate.

The “HeLa” cell line, considered among the important scientific discoveries of the last century, was the first immortal human cell line — a remarkably durable and prolific line of cells obtained during the treatment of Henrietta’s cancer by Johns Hopkins researcher Dr. George Gey in 1951.