A 'mothballed' Covid megalab currently for sale on Rightmove should be used as a research facility to develop advanced drugs, MPs have urged.
The Rosalind Franklin Laboratory in Leamington Spa opened in June 2021 and was Britain's first Covid testing mega-lab, processing 8.5 million swabs during the pandemic.
Officials said the £1.1 billion laboratory would 'play an indispensable role' in responding to future disease threats, but it was suddenly closed just 18 months later and appeared on the property's website in November.
A cross-party group of MPs has now called on the government to make use of this the ability to examine microscopic viruses called phages that seek out and destroy bacteria.
Scientists hope the 'friendly viruses' can help tackle antibiotic resistance – the phenomenon that bacteria evolve to become resistant to currently used drugs.
The Rosalind Franklin Laboratory – named in honor of the famous British scientist – stands empty, a monument to waste and incompetence, and for sale on the real estate website Rightmove
Phages are normally harmless to humans, but can be deadly to bacteria.
They work by penetrating the bacterial membrane and multiplying inside the cell until it bursts, killing the bacteria.
The key to using them to treat deadly diseases is to find phages that are highly efficient at killing the bacterial strains that cause these diseases.
The World Health Organization has described antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as 'one of the greatest threats to global public health and development'.
It said bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019 and contributed to 4.95 million deaths.
In its report published today, the Science, Innovation & Technology Committee says Britain is at an 'impasse' because phages have not been developed to the required standards. As a result, they cannot be used in clinical trials.
To meet British standards, phages must be made in new factories.
However, investments in compliant plants will only be justified after successful clinical trials.
It said Britain must break this licensing impasse to deploy phages as a life-saving treatment.
Greg Clark, chairman of the committee, said: 'Phages offer a potential answer to growing global concerns about antimicrobial resistance.
'But the development of phage therapies is at an impasse, with clinical trials needing new advanced manufacturing plants, but investment requiring clinical trials to have demonstrated efficacy.
'The committee asks the government to consider whether the mothballed Rosalind Franklin Laboratory in the West Midlands could provide a suitable facility.
'The laboratory, which has already received more than £1 billion in public funding, was established by the Government to address the inadequacy of testing capacity that was so hampering the national response to Covid.
'It consists of modern, secure laboratory facilities and was intended to be a key source of national resilience against future pandemics.
'But the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory has suddenly appeared for sale on property website Rightmove, to the surprise of the science and health communities.
“Our committee's report on phages calls for the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory to be considered for this purpose, rather than be lost to the nation and science in a fire sale.”
Industry insiders claim the government is trying to hand the world-leading facility to taxpayers at a fraction of the cost, which has been forced to fund almost twice its original £588 million budget.
Instead of being at the forefront of the fight against Covid, the project started six months late, faced equipment, staffing and construction issues and typically processed only 11,500 tests per day before closing 18 months later .
Desperate estate agents are now offering packages that will see Leamington Spa's custom-built facilities in Warwickshire broken up to attract 'start-ups, scale-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises'.
Greg Clark, chairman of the committee, said: 'Phages offer a potential answer to growing global concerns about antimicrobial resistance'
Property agent Avison Young is touting the sale of the 22,000 sq ft site as an 'unmissable opportunity', but casual browsers on the property's website may be confused by 'dirty and clean' corridors.
The planned sale wipes out a promise that the site would help Britain fight future epidemics.
Phages have been used as therapy for more than 100 years, but have never been licensed for therapeutic use in Britain.
They have only been used in isolated cases as a 'compassionate' treatment of last resort.
One such case involved a 15-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis, who had a fatal bacterial infection and was given less than a one percent chance of survival before being successfully treated with a three-phage cocktail by doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. London.
The committee is calling on the government, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and phage scientists to work together to find a way to fund phage research and license its products for use.
It also urges the MHRA to consider allowing the compassionate use of British-produced phages for medical cases of last resort, and to consider how current regulations would govern liability for doctors and hospitals that used these phages.
Professor Joanne Santini, from the UCL Institute for Structural and Molecular Biology and who assisted on the report, said: 'The Covid pandemic has made us acutely aware of the threat that infectious agents pose to health and healthcare systems.
'The inappropriate and overuse of antibiotics poses an even greater threat, with millions of people worldwide dying from infections caused by antimicrobial resistant bacteria.
'Phages will become essential weapons in the arsenal in the fight against AMR.
'Critical to our successful use of phages will be gathering evidence from both compassionate access use cases and clinical trials.
'To make this feasible in the UK, clear regulatory guidance, manufacturing facilities for GMP phage production and funding will be critical.'