Notice of sole source purchase - One-Step RT-PCR Test Kits

Added: Sep 14, 2012 10:35 am The U.S. Geological Survey, Reston Acquisition Branch intends to award a sole source purchase order to Qiagen, Valencia, CA under the provisions of FAR Part 13 to purchase up to 140 each One-Step RT-PCR kits, model 210212 per year for a base year plus two option years. Specifically, the USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) requires Qiagen to hold a production lot of the kits that is identified by the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) in reserve for the use of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) member laboratories. The NWHC is a member of the NAHLN and requires up to 140 kits per year from the reserved lot. The kits are to be held at Qiagen and subsets from the 140 kits are to be delivered on an as-needed basis. Each kit consists of a mixture of reverse transcriptase and a thermophilic polymerase sufficient for 100x50 microliter reactions. The reagent is used to test wild birds and must offer comparable testing results to the historical testing of over 100,000 birds, as changes in sensitivity or specificity would render historical results uninterpretable. A number of laboratory tests have been developed and validated by the NAHLN; member laboratories are required to follow the NAHLN testing procedure without modification. The Qiagen One-Step RT-PCR kit is specified by the NAHLN Document SOP-AV-1510.07 (Real time RT-PCR for the detection of avian influenza virus and identification of H5 and H7 subtypes in clinical samples). There is no provision for the use of enzyme mixes from other vendors in the NAHLN protocols that allow for the use of in-house primers and probes. Moreover, the NWHC does not have validation data for the use of the alternate assays. A validation study would cost an estimated $130,000-$150,000 of direct cost for labor, equipment and reagents to generate the equivalent data using an alternate vendor.

The sole source solicitation will be issued 09/14/12 with a due date of 09/19/12. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation to kmurray@usgs.gov, which shall be considered by the agency.