Metabolon, Inc.

Metabolon, Inc., headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina, is a self-certified small disadvantaged business that operates as a prime contractor delivering metabolomic analysis services to federal research agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Agriculture. Metabolon does not compete under set-aside vehicles; all recent awards carry no set-aside designation and are awarded through full and open competition or sole-source justifications.

Metabolon's core capability is metabolomics profiling—the identification and quantification of hundreds to thousands of metabolites (small molecules) in biological samples including plasma, serum, tissue, stool, and urine using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. The vendor operates proprietary discovery platforms (DiscoveryHD4) and reference libraries exceeding 4,000 metabolites, supporting disease mechanism research, biomarker discovery, precision medicine development, and drug-response evaluation. Representative work includes a $6 million delivery order from the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Integrated Service Network 4 to support the Million Veteran Program's metabolic analysis of stored samples, a $766,604 delivery order from the National Cancer Institute for the Liver Cancer Pooling Project Gut-Liver Axis Study, a $680,800 purchase order from the National Institute on Aging for global plasma metabolite profiling in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, a $4.5 million delivery order from VISN 4 for metabolic analysis, and a $249,989.74 purchase order from the National Institute on Aging for longitudinal metabolomics studies in mice and non-human primates.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward VA and Army Medical Command by dollar value, though NIH and NCI dominate by award count. The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Integrated Service Network 4 anchors the portfolio at $51.1 million combined potential value across 8 awards (37% of total portfolio value), while the Department of the Army Medical Command holds 36 awards worth $27.3 million. The National Cancer Institute leads by count at 75 awards valued at $13.7 million. Together, the top five customer components account for 70% of combined potential value across 148 awards. This concentration carries recompete risk: ten awards valued at $8.5 million combined are due to complete within the next twenty-four months.

Metabolon holds single-award indefinite-delivery contracts anchoring its federal work: a $22 million five-year IDIQ with VISN 21 (awarded September 2026, ultimate completion March 2032) for metabolomics analysis supporting the Million Veteran Program with specific requirements for 10,000 to 20,000 annual samples, Good Laboratory Practice certification, analysis of over 1,000 unique biomarkers, and documented experience with over 50,000 human samples; an $8.171 million five-year IDIQ with Department of Defense Medical Command (July 2025–July 2030) for metabolomic analysis of multiple biological matrices; a $296,000 IDIQ with the Food and Drug Administration (September 2023–August 2030) for biomarker and drug-response metabolomics investigation; a $250,000 IDIQ with NIH Clinical Center (sole-source, expired September 2024) for clinical research metabolomics; and a $133,200 IDIQ with NIH Clinical Center (September 2022–September 2023, expired). Task orders under these vehicles and smaller purchase orders dominate the recent award pipeline. The top parent vehicle by task-order count is HHSN261201700009I (18 task orders, $4.2 million), followed by W81XWH20D0059 (9 task orders, $855 thousand) and 36C25820D0026 (9 task orders, $394 thousand).

Award activity has cycled between 22 awards annually (2022) and 9–14 annually (2023–2026), indicating modest but stable engagement across the federal research footprint. The vendor also holds two active federal research grants as recipient: a May 2024 Phase I SBIR from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for metabolomics-based laboratory developed test to predict Type 1 Diabetes progression (completion April 2025), and a September 2023 Phase I SBIR from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for metabolomics diagnostics for polycystic ovary syndrome (completion August 2024). Service Contract Inventory records show SCI-reportable invoicing of $12.5 million across FY2022–FY2023 (spike to $8 million in FY2023), with government-paid hourly rates spanning a median around $1,861.70/hr to a 90th percentile of $27,994.71/hr, reflecting specialized analytical labor and principal investigator billing. Metabolon operates as a 100% prime contractor with minimal subcontractor engagement; all work captured in recent awards is delivered in-house, with no named subcontractors appearing in the sub-award listing. Performance locations span Morrisville and Durham, North Carolina; Palo Alto, California; Tampa, Florida; Natick, Massachusetts; and Baltimore, Maryland, with secondary operations in Tucson, Arizona and Silver Spring, Maryland.