Use ‘mothballed’ Covid mega-lab to help tackle antibiotic resistance, MPs urge

A “mothballed” Covid mega-lab currently for sale on property website Rightmove should be used as a research facility to help tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, it has been said the Members.

The Rosalind Franklin Laboratory in Leamington Spa opened in June 2021 and was the UK’s first Covid-19 testing mega-laboratory, processing around 8.5 million tests during the pandemic.

But it closed in January 2023 – much to the “surprise of the scientific and health communities”, and “suddenly the property appeared to be for sale” in November last year, according to a cross-party group of Deaths.

They said the Government should use the facility – which has received more than £1 billion of public funding – to research bacteria-killing viruses called phages to help tackle antibiotic resistance. as bacteria become drug resistant.

Phages are usually harmless to humans, but can be deadly to bacteria.

They work by penetrating the bacterial membrane and replicating inside the cell until it bursts open, killing the bacterium.

The key to harnessing them for treatment against deadly diseases is to find phages that are highly effective at killing the types of bacteria that cause them.

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The World Health Organization has described antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as “one of the greatest global threats to public health and development”, saying that bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019 and that it contributed to 4.95 million deaths.

In its report, published on Wednesday, Parliament’s Science, Innovation & Technology Committee said the UK is at risk because phages were not developed to the required Good Manufacturing Process (GMP), the minimum standard a pharmaceutical manufacturer must meet . in their production processes, and therefore cannot be used in clinical trials.

However, the report added that phages will require new manufacturing plants to meet GMP criteria, but investment in compliant plants will only be justified after successful clinical trials.

He said the UK must break this licensing deadlock to allow phages to be deployed as a life-saving treatment.

Greg Clark, chairman of the committee, said: “Phages provide a potential answer to the growing worldwide concern about antimicrobial resistance.

“But the development of phage therapies is slowing down, in which clinical trials require new advanced manufacturing plants, but the investment of clinical trials requires demonstrated efficacy.

“The Committee is asking the Government to consider whether the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory in the West Midlands could provide a suitable facility.

“The Laboratory, which has already received over £1 billion of public funding, was established by the Government to end the lack of testing capacity which has so hampered the national response to Covid.

“It consists of modern, secure laboratory facilities and was intended to be an important source of national resilience against future pandemics.

“But the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory suddenly appears to be for sale on property website Rightmove, much to the surprise of the science and health communities.

The report of our Committee on phages calls for Rosalind Franklin’s Laboratory to be considered for that purpose, rather than being lost to the nation and science in a fire sale.”

Phages have been used as therapy for over 100 years, but have never been approved for therapeutic use in the UK.

They were only used as “merciful” treatments as a last resort in isolated cases.

One such case involved a 15-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis who had a fatal bacterial infection and was given less than a 1% chance of survival before doctors successfully treated her with a three-phase cocktail at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital . .

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 is also urging the MHRA to consider the compassionate use of UK-produced non-GMP phages for last-resort medical situations and to review how current regulations would govern liability for clinicians and hospitals who ‘use these steps.

Professor Joanne Santini, who is based at UCL’s Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology and contributed to the report, said: “The Covid pandemic has made us acutely aware of the threat that infectious agents pose to health systems and healthcare.

“The inappropriate use and overuse of antibiotics is an even greater threat, with millions dying worldwide from infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.

“Phages are going to be essential weapons in the arsenal to combat RMB.

“A critical part of our successful use of phages will be gathering evidence from both compassionate access use cases and clinical trials.

“To make this possible in the UK, clear regulatory guidelines, manufacturing facilities to produce GMP phages and funding will be essential.”