SSJ_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR SOLE SOURCE PROCUREMENT (OPEN

MARKET OR GSA) UNDER $150,000

Sole source acquisitions may be used on a limited basis and only when the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR)/Program Official has provided sufficient justification and the Contracting Officer has determined that the circumstances warrant such action. The content for a justification must contain detailed facts and rationale to justify the sole source acquisition. Soliciting from a single source must be done in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b) or 8.405-6. At a minimum, the following information must be included:

Identification of Program Office, Contracting Activity, and Proposed Requirement, Justification and Program Office Certification:

A. Program Office:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention NCEZID/Division of Vector Borne Diseases 3156 Rampart Road Fort Collins, CO 80521

B. Contracting Activity:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office of Financial Resources Acquisition Branch 4

C. Identification of Requirement:

1. Nature of Action to be Approved by Contracting Officer:

a. Sole source acquisition of: a supplement issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID) Journal, consisting of up to 9 articles and numbering approximately 52 pages.

b. Procurement Request (PR) Number (if available): 00HCVLJC-2022-67782

2. Proposed Vendor and Estimated Procurement Amount (if available):

a. Proposed Vendor: The University of Oxford USA (Oxford University Press), 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

b. Estimated Procurement Amount: $

3. Is the requirement on GSA Schedule? Yes No

Rev. 5/15/17

If yes, provide schedule number: Click here to enter text.

D. Justification:

1. The justification for this non-competitive action is:

In accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), “only one source [is] reasonably available” which states that, “For purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold. (i) Contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available (e.g., urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand-name or industrial mobilization). (ii) Where a single source is identified to provide a portion of a purchase because that portion of the purchase specifies a particular brand-name item, the documentation in paragraph (b)(1)(i) of this section only applies to the portion of the purchase requiring brand-name item. The documentation should state it is covering only the portion of the acquisition which is brand- name.”

Urgency

Exclusive licensing agreements/Proprietary data

Brand name required

Industrial mobilization

Other (e.g., compatibility, space issues, continuity, compatibility, etc.)

In accordance with FAR 8.405-6 “Limiting Sources” which states that, “the only circumstances that may justify the action are – (A) An urgent and compelling need exists, and following the procedures would result in unacceptable delays; (B) Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized; or (C) In the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-up to an original Federal Supply Schedule order provided that the original order was placed in accordance with the applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures. The original BPA must not have been previously issued under sole-source or limited-sources procedures.”

Urgency

Only One Source

Logical Follow Up

Brand name required

2. Other facts supporting sole source procurement:

a. What can this product/service do that other products/services cannot do?

Clinical Infectious Disease (CID) is the most widely read and prestigious U.S. journal for the infectious diseases community, the target audience for this supplement journal issue. CID is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by Oxford University Press.

It covers, among other things, clinical descriptions of infections, public health, evaluation of current and novel treatments, and the promotion of optimal practices for diagnosis and treatment. It also features highly focused supplement journal issues. A supplement issue will have the greatest impact in dissemination of critical new information for clinicians treating patients with tularemia. Tularemia is a rare, potentially fatal disease, with epidemic and bioterrorism potential. Due to the rarity of tularemia, few clinicians are familiar with treatment options or even clinical signs of the disease. Lack of clinician familiarity and up-to-date, evidence-based guidance on diagnosis and treatment could gravely impact the response to a large tularemia outbreak, unintentionally or intentionally caused. Francisella tularensis, the

Rev. 5/15/17 bacterium that causes tularemia, could be weaponized, and is designated as a Tier 1 bioterrorism agent by CDC. In support of national threat response protocols, CDC is producing national guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of the Tier 1 bioterrorism agents. These guidelines must be evidence-based, relying on systematic literature reviews of the relevant disease, as well as other pertinent information. To date, CDC has issued updated treatment and prophylaxis guidelines on smallpox, botulism, anthrax, and plague. Tularemia guidelines are part of this series and will be published in the near future. The tularemia guidelines require high quality, peer reviewed, recently published, scientific evidence as references to support the guidelines. This supplement issue of CID will serve as this evidence and will be the key references for the tularemia guidelines (the guidelines will be published separately in MMWR). The supplement will include systematic literature reviews of tularemia data, recent tularemia surveillance data, and data on tularemia in animals. This supplement issue of CID will constitute a unique compendium and authoritative source of information on tularemia for many years to come. Additionally, publishing a CID supplement is the most efficient way to bring this key collection of tularemia research articles to the most important target audience: clinical infectious disease practitioners. A supplement issue is required because most journals that serve the infectious diseases community are unwilling to publish more than one or two articles on tularemia per year due to its rarity. We need a supplement issue specifically (as opposed to publishing the papers one-by-one in other scientific journals) because publishing the requisite number of peer-reviewed articles on tularemia in appropriate journals would take years to accomplish, delaying the publication of these critical guidelines which could significantly impact our Nation’s response to a large tularemia outbreak. Raw circulation numbers aren’t an accurate measure of the impact of a journal; the key factor is impact with desired audience:

infectious disease clinicians and public health professionals. CID, as an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), is intended most specifically for the target audience of this supplement issue. This audience (physicians, scientists and public health subject matter experts on infectious diseases) places much confidence in CID when it comes to matters of infectious diseases that impact the public. There is a specific metric for measuring this, called impact factor (IF), based on such figures as the number of published articles cited as references by other journals in the field, and the highest ratio of citations per article published. CID has a very high IF compared to other journals in the infectious disease field, thereby offering a higher impact (better metric than “circulation”) for this supplement.

b. What other products/services were considered and why did they not meet the need?

None. Some other journals offer supplement issues, but they are not as widely read or respected in infectious diseases matters as Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID) and CDC is seeking maximum dissemination of this clinical information. As mentioned above, historically, CID has the highest impact factor (9.117) of similar high ranking, peer-reviewed journals, such as The Journal of Infectious Diseases (IF 5.186), and Emerging Infectious Diseases (IF 7.422).

3. Program Office efforts to seek potential offerors:

No efforts were made to seek potential offerors because no other potential offerors have the wide distribution of clinical readership and credibility that Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID) has and other offerors would likely prefer to delay dissemination of these critical clinical articles which would ultimately delay the publication of the tularemia guidelines.

E. Program Office Certification: