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

A “mothballed” Covid mega lab currently on sale on the property website Rightmove should instead be used as a research facility to help combat the worsening threat of antibiotic resistance, MPs have said.

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

But it shut in January 2023 – much “to the astonishment of the science and health communities”, and the property “suddenly appeared for sale” in November last