THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT, NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. A SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED AND PROPOSALS WILL NOT BE REQUESTED. The National Cancer Institute (NCI() Office of Acquisitions intends to negotiate a sole source modification with the Advanced Biosciences Laboratory, Inc, of Kensington, Maryland. The existing contract has provided a facility for housing non-human primates and other standard laboratory animals under appropriate animal biosafety level 2 (BL2) conditions with animal biosafety level 3 (BL3) practices and procedures. Veterinary care and routine health surveillance have been provided for all animals. Technical and veterinary assistance for all routine procedures such as inoculations, bleedings, collection of mucosal secretions, biopsies, infection with pathogenic viruses, and implementing therapeutic regimen have also been provided. Clinical laboratory support services have been provided, and surgical procedures and complete post-mortem exams, including histological examination of tissues, have been carried out on study animals as required.

The contractual history of the current contract began in the 1970's, first with the former Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology, then the Basic Research Laboratory, and now the Vaccine Branch (VB), all in the National Cancer Institute. Historically, previous contracts provided immunological and virological support services for experiments carried out using animals under the contract. These included in vitro immunological assays in appropriate BL2/BL3 laboratories to characterize humoral or cellular immune responses following inoculation with viral antigens or virus infection and in vitro culture and detection of virus from peripheral blood and/or tissues or retrovirus-infected animals. The immunological and virological testing phases of the prior contract have been substantially removed. The scope of the current contract was expanded to include the purchase of non-human primates and temporarily to provide facilities for additional investigators in the VB. In addition, the contract screens non-human primates for various retroviruses and for a small panel of MHC haplotypes prior to acquisition, and conducts CD4/CD8 and complete blood counts. Otherwise, the current contract is solely for the purpose of provision and maintenance of non-human primates, and experimentation in animal model.
The proposed project is scaled back to provide facilities for non-human primate studies in the Section on Animal Model and Retroviral Vaccines and the Section on Immune Biology of Retroviral Infection of the VB. A base number of macaques will be requested with additional options for increasing animal numbers.

The planned modification will extend the period of performance of the current contract by 12 months, in order to provide continued contract performance until the award of a competitive acquisition for the follow-on requirement. Statutory authority to justify this procurement is 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) as set forth in FAR 6.302-1, Only one Responsible Source. The contractor is uniquely qualified as follows:

1. Specialized staff with specific training for the care of non-human primates.
2. Specialized facilities and operations for the care and experimentation on non-human primates.

If this effort were awarded to another contractor the unacceptable delays would be experienced due to the quarantine time required in the transfer of animals, consequently resulting in unacceptable delays to the Government. In addition, the costs to move animals (special caging, trucking, physical examinations of all non-human primates) from one facility to the another is very expensive and would result in a duplication of costs that is not expected to be recovered through competition.

The proposed contract action is for supplies or services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 6.302. However, if there are sources who feel they may respond by submitting a capability statement (5 page limit) within 15 days of the date of publication of this synopsis. A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed modification, based on the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive acquisition.

Overnight deliveries should be mailed to the National Cancer Institute, Office of Acquisitions, Elizabeth Shanahan, 6120 Executive Boulevard, Suite 600, Room 6064 MSC 7192 Bethesda, Maryland 20852. No collect calls or facsimile transmissions will be accepted. Respondents may submit their capability statements via email in addition to 2 hard copies.
Contracting Office Address:
6120 Executive Blvd.
EPS Suite 600
Rockville, Maryland 20852

 

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