6550--Lexington Ortho Clinical Diag - Blood Bank

The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Network Contracting Office (NCO) 9, on behalf of Lexington VA Medical Center (VAMC), 1101 Veterans Drive, Lexington, KY 40502, is issuing an intent to award a sole source base + four (4) option years to Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a large business, to provide reagents and consumables. Lexington VAMC owns the ORTHO Vision Swift ID-Micro Typing System analyzer. Ortho Clinical Diagnostics is the original equipment manufacturer and the proprietary gel reagent owner. Ortho Clinical Diagnostics is the only manufacturer that can provide reagents and products that meet the specified requirements. Reagent Red cells must be a 0.8% suspension and must contain a potentiator to be compatible with the VAMC Lexington KY-owned ORTHO VISION Analyzer and the ID-Micro Typing System (ID-MTS) Gel. Bio-Rad, Grifols, and Immucor produce FDA-approved blood bank products/reagents, but their products/reagents are incompatible with the existing ORTHO Vision system. Bio-Rad's gel reagent red cells are a 0.6% cell suspension. Grifol's gel red cell reagents contain no potentiator. Immucor's tube red cell reagents have a 2-3% cell suspension, and Immucor does not manufacture gel reagents. Ortho Clinical Diagnostics indicates that they do not have authorized dealers or distributors.

In accordance with 38 U.S Code 8127, the Veteran's First Contracting Program, this requirement does not meet the Rule of Two. This requirement will be awarded using other than competitive procedures when such concern is determined to be a responsible source for fulfilling this requirement. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 325413 and has a size standard of 1,250 employees for this procurement.

Capability statement /information sought: Response to this announcement shall not to exceed 10 pages and should include the following information: (1) A tailored capability statement indicating the firm's ability to provide a product and related services; (2) The respondents' SAMs UEI, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., SDVOSB/VOSB, etc,) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code; (3) a letter from ORTHO Clinical Diagnostics stating the yare an authorized reseller-distributor. (4) Information should be provided electronically in a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotes. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement and submit a capability statement no later than 10:00 a.m., CT, Friday, November 15, 2024, to: james.moore20@va.gov. Responses received will be evaluated; however, a determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses received to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.

Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response to this notice. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. However, responses to this notice should not be considered adequate responses to a notice.