Notice of Intent to Issue a Sole Source

THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. This notice is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. This procurement will be processed pursuant to FAR part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures. No solicitation will be issued.

All responsible sources who believe they can provide the supplies listed may submit, in writing to the identified point of contact, a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency. Information received will be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. A determination by the Government to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the Government. Responses are to be received prior to the expiration of this notice on 08/20/2019. No telephone calls are being accepted.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plains Area, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, intends to award on a sole source basis to Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc for an 8M Sequel System. Contract type will be a Firm Fixed Price. NAICS Code is 334516. Award is in accordance with both 41 U.S.C. 253©(1) and FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i). The purpose of this sole source award is to satisfy the requirement to enable deeper long read sequencing of samples that have limited material available for DNA/RNA extraction at a quality rate of >99.99% accuracy. Pacific Biosciences is the sole manufacturer and distributor of the Pacific Biosciences Sequel Systems, and their associated library preparation, polymerase, sequencing reagents, and software. The systems are held by numerous patents owned by Pacific Biosciences, and they are the only source of the proposed upgrade hardware, software, and operating chemistry.

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