Who would own the HeLa cell line in South Africa? 

The HeLa cell line was created in 1951 from a biopsy sample removed from a cancer patient, Henrietta Lacks, at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States. Over the past 70 years, the HeLa cell line was used in countless health-related innovations, ranging from the polio vaccine in the 1950s to studying the human genome, and more recently the COVID-19 vaccines. The problem, however, is that Henrietta Lacks’ consent was never obtained to use the biopsy sample for research purposes. Although the actions that took place were accepted practice 70 years ago, society’s values have since changed. As such, the HeLa cell line has become controversial. In 2021, the descendants of Henrietta Lacks sued a well-known biotechnology company for the profits it made from the HeLa cell line. Who owns the HeLa cell line? What would be the legal position if this happened in South Africa? In this article in the Journal of the Law and Biosciences, I answer this question.