Fluidigm system consumables and reagent supply

(i) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6 as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.

(ii) The solicitation number is 75N95019Q00118 and the solicitation is issued as a request for quotation (RFQ).

This acquisition is for a commercial item or service and is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13-Simplified Acquisition Procedures; FAR Subpart 13.5-Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items; and FAR Part 12-Acquisition of Commercial Items, and is NOT expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold at $250,000.00.

THIS IS A NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT) COMBINED SYNOPSIS SOLICITATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT OR PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION (INCLUDING BRAND-NAME).

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Office of Acquisition (OA), on behalf of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), intends to negotiate and award a purchase order without providing for full and open competition (including brand-name) for a Brand-Name-Only requirement of items manufactured by Fluidigm Corporation located at 7000 Shoreline Court, South San Francisco, CA 94080.

This acquisition is conducted as non-competitive for a commercial item or service and is conducted pursuant to FAR 13.106-1(b)(1).

(iii) The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) Number 2019-01, with effective date January 22, 2019.

(iv) The associated NAICS code is 334516-Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing with associated small business size standard of 1000 employees. This requirement is solicited on a Total Small Business Set-Aside basis.

(v) This requirement is for the following general requirements: to obtain five (5) "96.96 Dynamic ArrayTM IFCs for Gene Expression and sufficient Control Line Fluid syringes and reagents. - 10 IFCs" and ten (10) "Preamp and Reverse Transcription Master Mix", which allow SCTL scientists to examine gene expression profiles at a single cell level and continue ongoing projects on defining stem cell differentiation process in a heterogeneous population. These chip kits and reagent kits must meet certain salient characterisitcs that is required to achieve SCTL project milestones, specifically to be compatibile with the existing Fluidigm Juno and Biomaker HD systems to set up and conduct 9216 qPCR reactions in parallel at a time.

The following features are deemed essential that this requirement shall achieve and must be compatible with the Fluidigm Juno and Biomaker HD systems.

1. The Fluidigm 96.96 Dynamic Array IFCs for Gene Expression and sufficient Control Line syringes and reagents - 10 IFCs contains: Ten 96.96 Dynamics Array IFCs and sufficient Control Line Fluid syringes and reagents needed to prepapre the IFCs.

2. The Preamp and Reverse Transcriptopm Master Mix - 5 Tubes contains: 5 tubes of preamp and reverse transcription master mix enough to complete 480 reactions.

Specifically, the Offeror shall quote the following Item Number; Product Name; Quantity, manufactured by Fluidigm Corporation:

1. BMK-M10-96.96; 96.96 Sample/Loading Kit-10 IFCs; FIVE (5).
2. 100-6301; Preamp and Reverse Transcription Master Mix-5 Tubes; TEN (10).

(vi) BACKGROUND: The goal of this procurement is to establish and move stem cell technologies forward through a more centralized effort. The NIH Sem Cell Translation Laboratory (SCTL) within NCATS has a goal to bring iPSC technology closer to clinical application, drug discovery and regenerative medicine. Through the SCTL, NCATS will provide researchers across various disciplines and organizations with the ability to establish collaborations to advance the translation of regenerative medicine applications. SCTL projects on defining stem cell differentiation process in a heterogeneous population require examing gene expression profiles at a single cell level. Currently existing direct differentiation protocols for in-vitro stem cell differentiation produce heterogeneous cell population. Conventional bulk methods of qPCR process thousands of cells at a time and average out the difference. SCTL aims to understand the molecular mechanisms induced by individual compounds using in-vitro differentiation so that the team can precisely control the differentiation process. To achieve this goal, SCTL will focus on characterizing gene expression heterogeneity for embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells at a pluripotent state under defined culture condition at a single cell level and systematically characterize cell transcriptome changes for those cells induced by small molecules which exit from pluripotency and undergo lineage commitment.

INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE
Offerors should indicate an estimated delivery time in full after receipt of an order including if training or warranty provisions are applicable. Inspection and acceptance will be performed at NCATS, located at 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850.
(vii) The provision at FAR 52.252-1, Solicitation Provisions Incorporated by Reference (Feb 1998), applies to this acquisition. This solicitation incorporates one or more solicitation provisions by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. The offeror is cautioned that the listed provisions may include blocks that must be completed by the offeror and submitted with its quotation or offer. In lieu of submitting the full text of those provisions, the offeror may identify the provision by paragraph identifier and provide the appropriate information with its quotation or offer. Also, the full text of a solicitation provision may be accessed electronically at these addresses: https://www.acquisition.gov/browse/index/far https://www.hhs.gov/grants/contracts/contract-policies-regulations/hhsar/index.html

(End of provision)

The following provisions apply to this acquisition and are incorporated by reference:
• FAR 52.204-7, System for Award Management (Oct 2018)
• FAR 52.204-16, Commercial and Government Entity Code Reporting (Jul 2016)
• FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items (Oct 2018)
• FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items (Oct 2018)
• FAR 52.222-48, Exemption from Application of the Service Contract Labor Standards to Contracts for Maintenance, Calibration, or Repair of Certain Equipment-Certification (May 2014)
• HHSAR 352.239-73, Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Notice (December 18, 2015)

The clause at FAR 52.252-2, Clauses Incorporated by Reference (Feb 1998), applies to this acquisition. This contract incorporates one or more clauses by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. Also, the full text of a clause may be accessed electronically at these addresses:
https://www.acquisition.gov/browse/index/far https://www.hhs.gov/grants/contracts/contract-policies-regulations/hhsar/index.html

(End of clause)

The following clauses apply to this acquisition and are incorporated by reference:
• FAR 52.204-13, System for Award Management Maintenance (Oct 2018)
• FAR 52.204-18, Commercial and Government Entity Code Maintenance (Jul 2016)

The provisions of FAR clause at 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items (OCT 2018) is applicable to this solicitation:
52.222-3 Convict Labor (June 2003)
52.222-19 Child Labor-Cooperation With Authorities and Remedies (Jan 2018)
52.222-21 Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Apr 2015)
52.222-26 Equal Opportunity (Sep 2016)
52.222-36 Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities (Jul 2014)
52.222-50 Combating Trafficking in Persons (Jan 2019)
52.223-18 Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (Aug 2011)
52.225-13 Restriction on Certain Foreign Purchases (Jun 2008)
52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-- System for Award Management (Oct 2018)

The following provisions and clauses apply to this acquisition and are incorporated as an attachment:
• NIH Invoice and Payment Provisions (2/2014)

(viii) The provision at FAR clause 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. Responses received to this RFQ will be evaluated on a Trade-Off basis. The award will be made on a competitive best value basis, using "tradeoff" among price-cost and non-price-cost factors. The Government may elect to award to other than the lowest priced offeror, or other than the offeror with the highest rated non-price-cost proposal. In either case, a tradeoff will be conducted. The government reserves such right of flexibility in conducting the evaluation as necessary to assure an award with the contractor providing the best value to the government. Although technical factors are of paramount consideration in the award, cost or price is also important to the overall award decision. All evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price. However, cost or price may become a critical factor in source selection in the event two or more offerors are determined to be essentially equal following the evaluation of all factors other than cost or price.

Quotations will be evaluated based on the factor of Technical Capability: Offerors shall clearly indicate possessing the technical capability to achieve the essential salient characteristic features of this requirement. The Offeror must indicate in its quotation the ability to provide all of the requirements. The Offeror must indicate in its quotation the ability to meet the delivery requirements and evidence of possessing the technical knowledge, qualifications and capability and management structure needed in successfully achieving this requirement. Quotations will be evaluated using adjective ratings and no numeric point system will be used. Excellent (Risk level: Very low); Good (Risk level: Low); Acceptable (Risk Level: Neutral); Marginal (Risk level: High); Unacceptable (Risk level: Very high).

Cost: The Offeror(s) cost/price quotation will be evaluated for reasonableness and best value to the government. Basic cost and price information in the Offerors' quote must contain sufficient information to allow the Government to perform a basic analysis of the reasonableness of the Offeror to supply the required services and/or supply. For a price to be reasonable, it must represent a price to the government that a prudent person would pay when consideration is given to prices in the market. The Government intends to make an award(s) to that offeror whose proposal provides the best overall value to the Government. Discounts may be taken into account for this selection criterion, however the government reserves the right to make a selection decision with tradeoffs.

Respondents that believe that they are manufacturers or authorized resellers of any BRAND-NAME product specified in this announcement must provide, as part of their response: (a) product, catalog, model, and/or part number(s); (b) product description; (c) all relevant information and documentation that the item(s) offered meets the salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics as specified in the purchase description; quantity; estimated price or cost; shipping, handling, and/or installation charges; and delivery date after receipt of order.
A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer's specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award.

(ix) The Offerors to include a completed copy of the provision at FAR clause 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items, with its offer.

(x) The clause at FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items (Oct 2018), applies to this acquisition.

(xi) The clause at FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and is incorporated by reference.

(xii) The following additional contract requirement(s) or terms and conditions as determined by the contracting officer are necessary for this acquisition and consistent with customary commercial practices.
There are no additional contract requirement(s) or terms and conditions applicable to this acquisition.

(xiii) The Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) are not applicable to this requirement.

(xiv) Responses to this solicitation must include clear and convincing evidence of the offeror's capability of fulfilling the requirement as it relates to the technical evaluation criteria. The price proposal must include a Fixed-price quote including unit pricing, quantity, and total price proposed and all other relevant information and documentation that the item(s) quoted meets the salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics as specified in this solicitation.

The Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size must be included in the response. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov.

All quotations must be received by 12:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, on May 9, 2019 and reference the subject solicitation number. Responses must be submitted electronically to Hunter.Tjugum@nih.gov.

Fax responses will not be accepted.

(xv) The name and telephone number of the individual to contact for information regarding the solicitation: Hunter Tjugum, Contract Specialist, 301-827-5304, hunter.tjugum@nih.gov.

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