Thermo Fisher Scientific controversies
Controversies tied to this brand in public sources. A listing is not a finding of fault.
Back to profile5 entries
2021
Lacks estate sues Thermo Fisher Scientific over HeLa cells
Lawsuit filed
The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued Thermo Fisher Scientific, alleging that the company continued commercializing results derived from HeLa cells taken without Lacks' knowledge or consent. The lawsuit seeks the company's net profits from commercialization and an injunction against use of the cells without the estate's permission; the allegations are not presented as a court finding.
Source excerpt
Lacks' cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today, but lawyers for her family say Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, has continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known.
The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of "a racially unjust medical system."
The lawsuit asks the court to order Thermo Fisher Scientific to "disgorge the full amount of its net profits obtained by commercializing the HeLa cell line to the Estate of Henrietta Lacks." It also wants Thermo Fisher Scientific to be permanently enjoined from using HeLa cells without the estate's permission.
2021
Henrietta Lacks estate sues over HeLa cells
The estate of Henrietta Lacks filed litigation seeking compensation connected with the alleged unauthorized commercial sale and use of HeLa cells, which originated from Lacks without her consent.
2021
HeLa-cell litigation by the Henrietta Lacks estate
The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued Thermo Fisher in connection with the alleged unauthorized commercial sale and use of HeLa cells. The dispute concerns the historical removal and commercialization of Lacks’s cells without her consent and broader questions about biomedical benefit-sharing and informed consent.
2020
Reports question use of Thermo Fisher equipment in genetic surveillance
Reports and advocacy investigations alleged that Thermo Fisher equipment and related technologies were used by Chinese security authorities in genetic-surveillance activities involving ethnic minorities.
2019
Cessation of sales in Xinjiang and genetic-surveillance allegations
Thermo Fisher announced that it would stop selling equipment in Xinjiang. Subsequent reporting and investigations alleged that company equipment and related technologies were used by Chinese security authorities in genetic-surveillance programs involving Uyghur, Tibetan, and Hui populations. Reports later questioned whether equipment continued to reach police users despite restrictions. The company also halted sales of DNA-collection kits in Tibet after further reports.