The National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded a $291,923.05 firm fixed price purchase order to Nikon Instruments Inc. on August 14, 2020, for a BioPipeline slide upright microscope to be delivered to Huntington Station, New York. This award was made without set-aside designation despite originating from a pre-solicitation notice that indicated total small business set-aside eligibility. The contract was structured to address administrative obligations under 31 U.S.C. Section 1552(a), requiring de-obligation of unexpended and expiring fiscal year 2020 funding with an ultimate completion date of December 11, 2020.
The microscope system being procured was intended to support advanced biomedical research capabilities, based on the originating opportunity requirements for widefield and confocal slide scanning microscopy with brightfield, phase contrast, and fluorescent imaging capabilities across 2X to 40X magnification. Nikon Instruments Inc., a foreign-owned subsidiary of Nikon Corporation headquartered in Melville, New York, is an established federal supplier of specialized optical imaging equipment and microscopy solutions across multiple National Institutes of Health and Department of Health and Human Services components. The company maintains an extensive track record of providing sophisticated scientific instrumentation to federal research institutions and continues to serve as a primary supplier of microscopy equipment to government agencies including the National Institutes of Health and Department of Veterans Affairs.