JA-IQVIA redacted.pdf

Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition IQVIA Medical Subscription

SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION – SEE 2.101 AND 3.104

acquisition communities of the DLA Troop Support Medical Directorate – Readiness Division rely on DMLSS-Wholesale (DMLSS-W) system functionalities on a daily basis.

To date, the only known source that produces a product with commercial medical/surgical and pharmaceutical sales data on a monthly basis is IQVIA. IQVIA collects and processes data, then sells this information to numerous members of the healthcare industry based on their specific needs. The results of IQVIA’s data collection, editing, and filtering processes are proprietary.

The barriers to competition arise from the unique and proprietary nature of the data provided via the IQVIA license agreement and the adverse impact on systems, customers, and acquisition programs if the Government switches to an alternate source for calculations and algorithms for specific sales/forecast information used by the DMLSS-DLA readiness processes and applications.

IQVIA is recognized by the healthcare industry as the principal source for obtaining commercial sales data, both at the retail and wholesale levels, for both pharmaceutical and medical/surgical products. Thus, IQVIA is the only responsible source able to satisfy this agency requirement and fully comply with the Government’s statement of work, which includes the need to identify, by product, the monthly quantity of all pharmaceutical and medical products sold nationwide.

DLA Troop Support uses the components of the DMLSS to support customers in the “best value” selection of medical supplies. The medical treatment facilities use DMLSS data daily for selection of products and for regional standardization decisions. In addition, the DoD Services’ medical planners and logisticians, as well as the DLA Troop Support Medical Directorate, use the sales data to ascertain the availability and support of the product in the commercial marketplace. Product trend analysis can be applied to determine whether the Services’ healthcare requirements can be supported by the healthcare industry. IQVIA data is a key component of the various DMLSS systems and is used to identify, track, and quantify which products are commercially available in the commercial marketplace.

In order to derive needed information for DoD users, industry data must be correlated with the medical classification process used by the Universal Data Repository (UDR), DoD/VA Medical Catalog, Readiness Management Applications, Medical Master Catalog (MMC), Medical Product Data Bank (MedPDB), and the DMLSS Retail (DMLSS-R) system. These systems use another pharmaceutical proprietary classification system (First Data Bank) to interrelate the IQVIA sales data to the various medical products used by DLA customers. The IQVIA monthly sales data are a critical element of the databases and the applications within DMLSS, specifically the MMC. Accurate relation of sales data to product depends upon obtaining commercial sales data by product over time to determine which DoD Services’ requirements can be met and readily supported by the healthcare industry.

Failure to obtain the highly specialized data feeds offered through this IQVIA license agreement would result in major reprogramming associated with removing an essential component of the MMC and other DMLSS-DLA applications. Program logic and business rules applicable to using the IQVIA data within the application would be nullified and the absence of critical decision-making data would limit the ability of the MMC to support the Services and would hinder DLA Troop Support Medical’s readiness capability. Additionally, the Government would

SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION – SEE 2.101 AND 3.104

incur a significant duplication of costs in seeking or developing an alternate source for this data and thereafter reprogramming the MMC and other DMLSS-DLA applications to provide the functionality currently provided through use of the IQVIA license agreement.

While other data sources might be available, the fields and formats of those sources are significantly different and would require considerable analyst and developer labor costs and reprogramming time if integrated into DMLSS-DLA application. Based on an intensive technical evaluation to identify data sources that can be substituted in existing code and can, at a minimum, fulfill the same purpose and provide the same results and functionality as exists today, the DMLSS Program Manager developed an Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) using current program development cost baselines for this type of reengineering. The estimate utilized existing program development expenditures to determine the baseline cost for this type of reengineering. The estimated cost for analysis, redesign, recoding, and building and maintaining an internal government database is $108,165,795. Consequently, because IQVIA’s license agreement is readily capable of satisfying this requirement, such analysis and reengineering is neither an efficient use of resources, nor fiscally viable for the DMLSS program.

Based on the foregoing, the Contracting Officer has determined that this follow-on contract for the continued provision of highly specialized services must be awarded on a sole source basis to IQVIA Government Solutions Inc. because it is likely that award to any other source would result in a substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.

6. DESCRIPTION OF EFFORTS MADE TO ENSURE THAT OFFERS ARE

SOLICITED FROM AS MANY POTENTIAL SOURCES AS IS PRACTICABLE,

INCLUDING WHETHER A NOTICE WAS OR WILL BE PUBLICIZED AS

REQUIRED BY SUBPART 5.2 AND, IF NOT, WHICH EXCEPTION UNDER 5.202

APPLIES.

In accordance with FAR 5.201(b)(1), a synopsis will be posted to beta.SAM.gov to provide all commercial entities an opportunity to submit proposals for this requirement.

7. DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE

ANTICIPATED COST TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE FAIR AND

REASONABLE.

As the Contracting Officer, I hereby determine that pricing will be fair and reasonable based on a pricing analysis in accordance with FAR 15.404-1. It is anticipated that the Government will perform a comparison of the proposed price to the historical prices paid for the same or similar products and the Independent Government Cost Estimate, to obtain a fair and reasonable price.

8. DESCRIPTION OF THE MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED (SEE PART 10)

AND THE RESULTS OR A STATEMENT OF THE REASON MARKET

RESEARCH WAS NOT CONDUCTED.

SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION – SEE 2.101 AND 3.104

The DLA Medical Directorate conducted market research to compare service offerings of the incumbent vendor (IQVIA) with alternative solutions existing in the industry. Market research techniques included a review of acquisition history for contracts used by the directorate to procure similar services and a search of Contract Opportunities and GSA websites for other vendors with similar data service offerings. Primary comparative factors used to analyze alternatives included technical service offerings, functional familiarity, and cost to the DLA Medical Directorate.

Alternative subscription services considered were the ECRI Price Guide as well as the Global Health Exchange (GHX) Product Data Feed.

Results of market research conducted were as follows:

IQVIA Government Solutions Inc.: (https://www.iqvia.com) (Incumbent product) IQVIA has been the standard in pharmaceutical industry sales information for over 40 years.

IQVIA gathers sales information from more than 500 vendors to provide pharmaceutical, medical, and surgical sales data on national and global markets.

One of IQVIA’s reporting tools is the Medical Device and Supply Audit (MDSA), which measures the sales data of medical devices and supplies in U.S. hospitals. The MDSA provides the SKU purchase information of approximately 500,000+ products sold to U.S. hospitals. The MDSA reporting tool can be customized so that information is up-to-date and applicable.

DLA Troop Support Medical Directorate receives IQVIA Pharmaceutical Sales Data, Relational Data Model for Pharmaceutical Sales Data, Medical/Surgical Sales Data, Relational Data Model for Medical/Surgical Sales Data, Medical/Surgical Synonym File, and Package Allocation for Medical/Surgical Data, on a quarterly basis and a Comprehensive Data Dictionary on an annual basis under its current annual subscription.

The IQVIA medical/surgical and pharmaceutical data feed meets the Government’s requirement for readiness support of critical functionalities.

ECRI: (www.ecri.org) PriceGuide™ Emergency Care Research Institute or ECRI Institute was established in 1968. ECRI Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to emergency care research and evaluation has expanded to include medical devices. ECRI has evolved with healthcare technology assessments, medical procedures, drugs, and processes to improve patient care. Product and service offerings include programs, products, and tools for patient safety, quality, risk management, technology planning and assessment, technology acquisition, and technology management.

DLA Troop Support Medical Directorate currently subscribes to the PriceGuide™ Advisory Membership benchmarking data subscription for medical/surgical supplies and implant devices on an annual basis.

SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION – SEE 2.101 AND 3.104

Although the ECRI data subscription provides valuable benchmarking data, it does not satisfy the more comprehensive requirement by the Readiness Division for rolling 24-month commercial sales data collected monthly and reported quarterly, both at the retail and wholesale levels, for both pharmaceutical and medical/surgical products, along with product synonym files and packaging information. The ECRI Price Guide does not meet the Government’s current requirement for readiness support of critical functionalities.

Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (https://www.ghx.com) GHX is a healthcare technology company with a focus on increasing hospital and medical supply chain efficiencies, lowering costs, and indirectly impacting better patient care. GHX has created the largest footprint in the healthcare supply chain through automation of supply chain systems.

GHX Sales Data Analytics Solutions allows customers visibility into their respective market positions, with proprietary information gathered and filtered into GHX’s Market Intelligence database. GHX’s sales data is provided by a third-party and captures approximately 80% of U.S.

healthcare sales from over 20 U.S. distributors. The data provides insight into trends and market conditions.

Another GHX capability, MiShare®, is an online portal for market “ecosystem” details. A benefit to this functionality is that sales data is provided in both units and dollars in a wide range of market sectors. While healthcare data does not encompass pharmaceutical items, the GHX Market Intelligence Solution tool allows for detailed supplier strategies for products, the evaluation of sales performance, and growing market share to be targeted.

Although the GHX data service provides a number of valuable components of pharmaceutical/medical surgical data, it does not offer the visibility and insight into what medical materiel is being sold in the commercial side of the medical healthcare industry, nor does it gather all pharmaceutical and medical/surgical commercial sales data available. The GHX data feed does not meet the Government’s current requirement for readiness support of critical functionalities.

9. ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND

OPEN COMPETITION

DMLSS-DLA has no budget or business approvals for reengineering the current data feed.

10. LISTING OF THE SOURCES, IF ANY, THAT EXPRESSED, IN WRITING, AN

INTEREST IN THE ACQUISITION.

IQVIA Government Solutions Inc.

11. STATEMENT OF THE ACTIONS, IF ANY, THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO

REMOVE OR OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS TO COMPETITION BEFORE ANY

SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION FOR THE SUPPLIES OR SERVICES REQUIRED.