NOTICE OF INTENT NICHD-21-097.pdf

INTRODUCTION

THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT) SYNOPSIS

TO AWARD A CONTRACT OR PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL

OR OPEN COMPETITION.

The National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD), in support of the work of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Disease (NIDDK), intends to award a purchase order without providing for full and open competition to Life Technologies Corporation, North American Sales and Service, 5781 Van Allen Way, Carlsbad, CA 92008 to acquire Base + 4 option years for QuantStudio 6 Flex Real-Time PCR Systems Maintenance Agreement.

NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE

The intended procurement is classified under NAICS code 811219 with a Size Standard $20.0 M.

REGULATORY AUTHORITY

The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses in effect through the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Circular (FAC) 2021-05 effective 3-10-2021.

This acquisition is conducted under the procedures as prescribed in FAR subpart 13- Simplified Acquisition Procedures at an amount not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold ($250,000) and FAR Subpart 12- Acquisition of Commercial Items.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13—Simplified Acquisition Procedures, Subpart 13.106-1 (b) (1), Soliciting from a single source and is not expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold.

Contracts awarded using FAR Part 13—Simplified Acquisition Procedures are exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6—Competition Requirements.

Place of Performance National Institutes of Health 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda MD 20892 United States

DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT

This request is for the renewal of the preventive maintenance agreement for QuantStudio 6 Flex Real-Time PCR Systems. The systems enable a real-time PCR system solution for differential scanning fluorometry. This service will allow the NIDDK to run a real-time protein melt experiment to screen for ligand-protein binding, optimize buffer conditions, or identify protein stability changes. The technology offers a high-throughput and an inexpensive alternative to traditional methods.

The instruments covered under the current maintenance agreement play a critical role in support of our research activities. As such, any prolonged downtime as a result of mechanical failure would have a significant, crippling effect on our abilities to perform our

PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT) SYNOPSIS

work. As the systems have been manufactured by Life Technologies Corporation, the manufacturer has the technical expertise and replacements parts readily available in their inventory to ensure that our instrument downtimes are mitigated to the lowest possible level.

The vendor shall rebuild or replace any Scheduled Maintenance designation part that has failed due to wear and tear or which requires replacement outlined by the OEM Service Manual.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE:

Base: 05/23/2021 – 05/22/2022 Option 1*: 05/23/2022 – 05/22/2023 Option 2*: 05/23/2023 – 05/22/2024 Option 3*: 05/23/2024 – 05/22/2025 Option 4*: 05/23/2025 – 05/22/2026

Coverage: AB Assurance 1PM

SN# 278860705 - QUANTSTUDIO 6 FLEX

SN# 278860715 - QUANTSTUDIO 6 FLEX

Under this Agreement, Life Technologies Corporation shall provide certain services with respect to the equipment which is listed in the Agreement. These services, together with the terms and conditions of the Agreement, are as follows:

Parts, labor and travel for remedial repair.

No charge for planned maintenance visits. The number of planned maintenance visits is indicated in LT's quotation (A). The annual planned maintenance (PM) visit is automatically opened and will be performed within the contract period.

Guaranteed priority response time of 2 business days after receipt of a service call for instruments located in LT's Service Zones 1 and Zone If LT fails to arrive at the instrument location within Zone 1 or Zone 2 within 2 business days for reasons other than customer's failure to provide access to LT or causes beyond the reasonable control of LT, LT will provide customer a service plan renewal credit in an amount equivalent to one day's pro-rated charge for each day LT's response is late.

Target response time of 3 business days for remedial repairs outside of Zones 1 and 2. LT will use reasonable efforts to respond within 3 business days from receipt of a service call.

Priority telephone and email access to instrument technical support.

Telephone and email access to application technical support.

Remote Monitoring and Dx Service, which provides for notification to customer of instrument failures or errors that are reported by AB's Remote Monitoring software.

CONTRACTING WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION

(INCLUDING BRAND- NAME) DETERMINATION

The determination by the Government to award a contract without providing for full and open competition is based upon the market research conducted as prescribed in FAR Part 10—Market Research. Only one source is available: Per FAR 13.106-1(b)(1) the Contracting Officer has determined that Life Technologies Corporation is the sole provider of the QUANTSTUDIO 6 FLEX maintenance services.

The manufacturer designs builds and services its own instruments and subsequently it has created service documentation that they use in performing services. The service documentation and service tools are copyrighted and/or proprietary to them. Life Technologies Corporation has not authorized any third-party service providers to copy or make derivatives of or use any of the service documentation and/or service tools for any purposes in performing its qualification services. The unauthorized use, copying, or making derivatives of the service documentation and service tools is a violation of their intellectual property rights.

CLOSING STATEMENT

This synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provided feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties’ bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirement, unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, the delivery period after contract award, the prompt payment discount terms, the F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov.”

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement.

All responses to this notice shall be submitted electronically by 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time, on May 12, 2021.

Assessment of Capability The contractor will be evaluated on their capability to provide the product to the specifications as stated on the solicitation and shall be required to provide required service with certification from the OEM.

http://www.sam.gov/