B.8 AP Attach 8 - FBO SSS Draft Pre-Sol-SD_v2.pdf

Acquisition Plan Attachment #8

FEDERAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES SSS/DRAFT PRE-SOL

Document Type: Source Sought Notice

Solicitation No.: N01DA-23-8936

Project Title: Using Rodent Behavioral Models to Identify Substance Use Disorder

Pharmacotherapies

Classification Code: A – Research & Development

NAICS Code: 541715 – Research and Development in Physical, Engineering and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)

Contracting Office Address

NIDA Office of Acquisitions NIDA Section, Contracts Management Branch Red c/o 3WFN MSC 6012 301 N Stonestreet Ave Bethesda, MD 20892

Description

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE to determine the availability of businesses, including small businesses (e.g., 8(a), veteran-owned small businesses, services-disabled veteran owned small businesses, HUB Zone small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, and women-owned small businesses) having capability to support and provide resources to the participating grantees for providing testing capacities in the following rodent in vivo assays: mouse locomotor activity, rat drug discrimination, and rat self-administration. This contractor will provide studies utilizing a variety of preclinical (animal) behavioral models to predict clinical efficacy of test compounds for the treatment of substance abuse disorders.

Abuse of, and dependence on, a variety of substances remains a significant public health concern.

Currently no approved pharmacotherapies exist to treat individuals dependent on cocaine, methamphetamine, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). As a result, the preclinical evaluation of potential pharmacotherapies for substance use disorders is a critical component in the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA’s) effort at addressing this public health problem.

An established approach for identifying and developing potential treatments for substance use disorders is the evaluation of compounds for their pharmacological effects alone and their ability to alter the effects of the abused drug. Such an approach provides a means by which to understand the potential utility of a compound, allowing rational selection of lead candidate compounds that warrant further testing and development, from among a wide variety of drugs. This approach has been employed routinely and successfully by the pharmaceutical industry as a means of identifying and evaluating compounds for potential therapeutic utility in treating other diseases, including central nervous system (CNS) indications.

Under established contracts, NIDA’s Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences (DTMC)/Addiction Treatment Discovery Program (ATDP) utilizes a variety of preclinical (animal) behavioral models to predict clinical efficacy of test compounds for the treatment of substance abuse disorders including cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids, cannabis, and nicotine. The present contract will provide testing capacity in the following rodent in vivo assays: mouse locomotor activity, rat drug discrimination, and rat self-administration. These models are part of a larger preclinical testing hierarchy supported by separate contracts that fund the evaluation of compounds in the rat intracranial self-stimulation assay, various rodent models of relapse to drug-seeking behavior, as well as the primate drug discrimination and self-administration models. To address the opioid crisis, measures of physical dependence and withdrawal are used to assess potential new medications for additional aspects of opioid dependence.

Specifically, NIDA is seeking capability statements from vendors with the capabilities to perform per the details below:

An in-house capability and multi-disciplinary knowledge, expertise, and experience required to perform in vivo preclinical evaluation of test compounds as potential pharmacotherapies for substance use disorders. This contract, and the data generated, will be utilized by the Addiction Treatment Discovery Program (ATDP) within NIDA’s Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences. To this end, the offeror and technical personnel need to have the capability and experience to conduct experiments evaluating compounds in the mouse locomotor activity, rat drug discrimination, and rat self-administration paradigms. Testing could possibly include the evaluation of compounds in other rodent models relevant to substance use disorders and addiction. The offeror and technical staff need to have experience conducting these types of experiments using cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine, nicotine, THC, and hallucinogens. Evidence of experience must be documented through publications using the relevant behavioral models listed above. Contractors will be blinded to the identity of proprietary test compounds, and all compounds will be evaluated using established protocols and experimental parameters as specified by the NIDA Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR).

Standardized, detailed reports with graphs will be prepared and submitted to the NIDA COR for each compound tested. In addition, the offeror needs to have the dedicated laboratory space, animal care facilities, and equipment required to conduct these behavioral assays.

The successful offeror must submit documentation of a current DEA registration for Schedules II-IV controlled substances and the eligibility to obtain Schedule I prior to award. All offerors must be in compliance with the NIH guidelines on the care and use of laboratory animals. Offerors should demonstrate capability to administer and coordinate interrelated tasks in an effective and timely manner.

NIDA is requesting capability statements from businesses, including small businesses (e.g., 8(a), veteran-owned small businesses, services-disabled veteran owned small businesses, HUB Zone small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, and women-owned small businesses), demonstrating their ability to perform the requirements described above. Capability statements should include any relevant experience as either prime or sub contractor performing work of a similar type and scale either for the government or in the private sector. Vendors are encouraged to provide a list of any relevant contracts they have performed that provided them with experience in performing the above tasks, including what their level of effort was for the performance. NIDA will evaluate the capability of vendors based on relevant experience in work of a similar type and scale, as well as any additional information provided by the vendor to demonstrate their capability.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: This notice is for information and planning purposes only and does not commit the Government to any contractual agreement. The Government does not intend to award a contract based on responses under this announcement nor otherwise pay for preparing any information sent for the Government's use. Any proprietary information should be so marked. All capability statements must provide the following: 1) company name and address; 2) point of contact, 3) phone/fax/email; 4) NAICS Code(s), 5) business size and status; 6) capability information in response to the requirement and qualifications identified in this notice; and 7) type of small business your organization classifies itself as (i.e.: women-owned, HUBZONE, etc.), if applicable.

Written capability statements must be SUBMITTED NO LATER THAN JUNE 16, 2022 to the above Contracting Office Address, Attn: KJ Shaikh. Electronic capability statements will be accepted by the primary point of contact.

Points of Contact

Primary Point of Contact:

Scott Duernberger Contract Specialist Scott.duernberger@nih.gov Phone: (301) 594- 0670

Secondary Point of Contact:

Khurram Shaikh Contracting Officer Kj.shaikh@nih.gov Phone: (301) 435-1777