Henrietta Lacks' descendants accused a biopharmaceutical company in a lawsuit Thursday of unjustly profiting from the Black woman's tissue, which was harvested without her knowledge or consent and later used for medical breakthroughs.
State of play: The lawsuit, filed in Baltimore federal court against Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, comes just over a week after her estate settled with another biotechnology firm it also accused of profiting from the harvesting of Lacks' cells when she was being treated for cervical cancer in the 1950s.
