Amendment_No._1_-_RFP-NIAID-DMID-NIHAI2017091.pdf

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION

Solicitation Number: RFP-NIAID-DMID-NIHAI2017091 Amendment Number: 1

AMENDMENT ONE (1)

Issued by: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Office of Acquisitions, MSC 9821 5601 Fishers Lane Rockville, MD 20852

Solicitation Number: RFP-NIAID-DMID-NIHAI2017091

Date of Solicitation Issuance: November 30, 2017

Date of Amendment No.1 Issuance: December 28, 2017

Number of Pages: 5 Pages

NIAID Point of Contact: PRIMARY:

Jason Aroz, Contract Specialist Email: Jason.Aroz@nih.gov Phone: 301-761-7468

SECONDARY:

George Kennedy, Contracting Officer Email: kennedyg@mail.nih.gov Phone: 240-669-5170

The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers remains unchanged, 5:00 PM Eastern Prevailing Time on January 26, 2018.

Offerors MUST acknowledge receipt of the amendment by Amendment number(s) and date of the amendment.

FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDEMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE

DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE

SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER.

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the solicitation remain unchanged and in full force and effect.

mailto:Jason.Aroz@nih.gov mailto:kennedyg@mail.nih.gov

Purpose of Solicitation Amendment:

The purpose of Amendment No. 1 is to respond to questions received regarding this solicitation, to correct the header to “Attachment 3 - Statement of Work” to correctly identify the Statement of Work as Attachment 3 to the solicitation, and to provide a deadline for the submission of questions received.

All questions must be submitted on or before January 10, 2018 to receive a response.

Below is the Government’s responses to questions received:

1. Question: Does this RFP expect offerors to deliver a particular product (assay/system/kits) to NIAID so the researchers at NIAID can perform in vitro assessments of antimicrobial activity? Or does this RFP expect offerors to perform in vitro assessments of antimicrobial activity and deliver results?

Answer: Please refer to the Sample Task Orders for a description of the sample requirement. For example, as stated within Sample Task Order A-01 (Attachment 4, page 1), the “Contractor shall determine the in vitro Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of candidate (anti-bacterial/anti-fungal) compounds against a bacterial or fungal pathogen (select pathogen from table below).”

For descriptions of each of the Task Areas, please refer to Attachment 3, Statement of Work.

2. Question: Can offerors select more than one task area?

Answer: Please refer to Attachment 13, Additional Technical Proposal Instructions.

As stated in Attachment 13, offerors “are not required to propose to all Task Areas, but may respond to one or more Task Areas.”

3. Question: Does this RFP support clinical validation study, clinical trial or FDA clinical testing?

Answer: Clinical Trial work will not be conducted in task orders resulting from this solicitation.

4. Question: The solicitation says that to project 200 isolate MIC determinations with the assumption that there would be 20 isolate determinations per month over 10 months. It says that a single pathogen should be chosen for a response. Can an offeror submit multiple applications if it can test >1 pathogen from the Table 1 list of pathogens? Or can an offeror submit a comprehensive response that would have >1 pathogens, for example if it chose 10 bacteria from the list, could it submit a response for 2000 total isolate MIC determinations, 200 per month over 10 months?

Answer: Please refer to the Sample Task Order instructions. For example, Sample Task Order A-01 requires offerors select one pathogen of their choosing. Attachment 4, Sample Task Order A-01, states that in “preparing your response to this sample task order, Offerors should select either antibacterial or anti-fungal in the sample task order scope statement, and prepare the response using a pathogen from the corresponding table below.”

5. Question: With a single pathogen approach, are we expected to receive multiple compounds (to make up the 20 MIC determinations) or would there be on average 1 compound received per month and we need to provide up to 20 unique strains of a pathogen or more than likely a combination of both? We are not sure if the approach is just to see if the compounds have activity or if we are to help describe the spectrum of the activity with strains with varying MICs and / or resistant phenotypes or genotypes?

Answer: Please refer to the Sample Task Order instructions. For example, Attachment 4, Sample Task Order A-01, states that for the “purposes of responding to this sample task order, assume 20 isolate determinations per month for 10 months.”

6. Question: Even taking advantage of collaborations, it would not be practical for a team to work with all of the viruses that are on the NIH or CDC priority list and we want to ensure that our selection is broad enough to be considered responsive. For example, will 10 viruses from 8 different virus families be broad enough?

Answer: Please see the answer to Question 4.

7. Question: Does this RFP allow for Research & Development efforts to develop our technology, or is the RFP solely focused on testing? Will the contract support technology platform development or only the application of fully developed technology platforms to address the described tasks?

Answer: For purposes of responding to Sample Task Order E, your proposal should be inclusive of efforts to develop the proposed method for culturing.

Sample Tasks A-D are expected to use established techniques to assess efficacy of a potential therapeutic. Sample Task E develops methods to assess efficacy of a therapeutic against a pathogen for which it is currently not possible.

8. Question: Could you please confirm whether equipment is allowable as an expense for Task E?

Answer: Please refer to the proposal instructions found in the solicitation. As stated in Attachment 13, the “Technical Proposal should document availability and adequacy of facilities, equipment, space and other resources necessary to carry out the Statement of Work.”

9. Question: Page 61 of the PDF file for the solicitation that “Past Performance Information” requires “A list of the last 3 contracts completed during the past three years and currently being performed that are similar in nature to the solicitation workscope.”

Would a proposal demonstrating collaborative work with non-government entities, but not government entities be eligible to apply for this solicitation?

Answer: This requirement is solicited using full and open competition. Please refer to Section M.7 of the solicitation for details concerning how Past Performance is evaluated under this requirement.

10. Question: Is a U.S. Government laboratory eligible to submit a proposal to this requirement?

Answer: United States Government resources that are included in one offeror’s proposal must be made available to all potential offerors. Therefore, U.S. Government resources that are not available to the public should not be included in a proposal.

A U.S. Government laboratory whose services are publicly available (for example, if the services of the institution are available for a fee), is eligible. Please clearly identify in the proposal if the institution uses U.S. Government resources. In the event a proposal includes costs for a U.S. Government entity, the decision to use an IAA would be dictated by the specific authority under which appropriated funds are transferred between Government Agencies, and the specific funding authority granted to the entity in question.

11. Question: Attachment 13, Technical Instructions, Section 3, Approach for each Task

Area, says 10‐page (or 15‐page) max for each Task Area. The same section goes on to say “Additionally, responses to the Sample Task Order(s) matching the Task Areas proposed should describe ….”. Then Attachments 4‐6 & 9, Sample Task Orders, all say “Prepare a technical proposal to accomplish the effort described in the Statement of Work, not to exceed 10 (or 15) pages.” It is not clear to us whether the 10/15 pages for each Task Area is supposed to cover both the Task Area and the associated Task Order, or if we get 10/15 pages to discuss each Task Area and another 10/15 pages to discuss each Task Order.?

Answer: The 10-page maximum for Task Areas A through D and 15-page maximum for Task Area E applies to the Technical Plan/Approach for each Sample Task Order.

For example, the Sample Task Order Technical Proposals to Sample Task Orders A-01 and A-02 would be limited to ten (10) pages each for a proposal applying to both task areas.

Please note that a separate section is provided for the offeror’s Technical Proposal Overview (15-page maximum), the specifics of which are described on the second page of Attachment 13, Additional Technical Proposal Instructions. Using the above example, a proposal applying to both Sample Task Orders A-01 and A-02 would include a Technical Proposal Overview section limited to fifteen (15) pages, and would also include Technical Proposals specific to each Sample Task Order, limited at ten

(10) pages each.

12. Question: Should the small business subcontracting plan be based on the $30,000,000 maximum?

Answer: Yes.

13. Question: Is the NIH interested in a provider which can propose to detect inhibitors of the enzymatic process only?

Answer: The described process falls under Task Area A’s descrption, but NIAID is unable to comment on the likelihood of future requirements issued under this IDIQ.

Please use your own judgment in deciding whether to submit a proposal to this requirement.

14. Question: How competitive would a proposal be that focused on Task areas A and B (Bacteria, Fungi, and Toxins and Viruses)? How competitive would an application be that focused on BL2 organisms (bacteria and fungi) along with antiviral assays?

Answer: Please refer to Attachment 13, Additional Technical Proposal Instructions. As stated in Attachment 13, offerors “are not required to propose to all Task Areas, but may respond to one or more Task Areas.” Please use your own judgment when submitting a proposal to this requirement.

15. Question: If we prepare the sample task order without any subcontracts, will we be able to use subcontracts, as needed, in future task orders?

Answer: Yes.

PLEASE NOTE: In the questions/responses above, specific organizational names have been removed or replaced where possible as well as other minor adjustments.

ALL OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS SOLICITATION REMAIN

UNCHANGED.

End of Amendment 1