The family first learned that Henrietta's cells were alive and being sent across the world, twenty-two years after Henrietta's death. After discovering that Henrietta's cells were in circulation, the family began blaming John Hopkins for taking Henrietta's cells without permission and commercializing them into a multi-million dollar industry, so that his family lived in poverty without health insurance. John Hopkins Hospital has made various statements claiming that the hospital never received funding for HeLa cells, specifying that Gey donated all of his HeLa cell samples to fellow researchers. Therefore, the only beneficiaries of HeLa cell profits are biotechnology companies, which sell vials of HeLa cells for up to ten thousand dollars.