Description
The US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity intends to issue a sole source purchase order to Applied Biosystems, 301 Merritt 7, Norwalk, CT 06851-1070 for Taqman 1000RXN Gold with Buffer A Pack Reagents and DNTPS with DUTP - GENEAMP Comp Frozen Reagents. No solicitation document exists. Any firm that believes it can provide the stated items is invited to submit written notification to the Contracting Officer within 10 calendar days from the date of the publication of this notice. Supporting evidence must be furnished in sufficient detail to demonstrate the firm's ability to provide the stated items. Information can be sent to the Contracting Officer at: USAMRAA, ATTN: MCMR-AAA-P (Jodi Cardoza), 820 Chandler Street, Frederick, MD 21702. No telephone requests will be accepted. Responses received will be evaluated; however, a determination by the government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon the responses received to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. If no responses are received, USAMRAA will proceed with the sole source contract. Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition Justification 1. Contracting Activity: The Contracting Activity responsible for this action is the US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity. 2. Description of Action: This approval is being requested for a new firm-fixed price contract using R&D Fiscal Year 2008 funds. 3. Description of Supplies/Services: The National Bioforensic Analysis Center (NBFAC) has the requirement to obtain 30 TaqMan 1000 RXN Gold with Buffer A Packs part number 4304441 and 65 GeneAmp dNTP s with dUTP kits part number N8080095 from Applied Biosystems, Inc. (ABI) in support of national security in the NBFAC Molecular Biology Laboratories. 4. Authority Cited: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c) (1). The FAR citation is 6.302-1 and the FAR citation title is only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. 5. Reason for Authority Cited: While there are other vendors that offer comparable reagents for Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), the NBFACs Molecular Biology Department has validated and verified these reagents manufactured by Applied Biosystems Inc. for use within their ISO 17025 accredited assays. Using different reagents within the ISO 17025 accredited assays would stop the NBFACs ability to perform work in accordance with their ISO 17025 accredited program, ultimately inhibiting the NBFAC from delivering ISO 17025 accredited results to their customer. Maintaining and adhering to their ISO 17025 accredited program is a requirement of the NBFACs customer. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: No efforts will be taken to obtain competition as a delay in performance of casework could occur if a new vendors reagents are to be used. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: Increasing competition is not possible at this time. 8. Market Research: Market research was performed by Christina Pfotenhauer in November 2008, which revealed USB, a component of Affymetrix Inc., markets dNTPs with dUTP for the same price as ABI. This would not have any cost savings and there could still be a delay in performance of casework to allow time to verify these reagents work for NBFACs Molecular Biology Assays. 9. Interested Sources: To date, no other sources have written to express interest in this requirement. The notice required by FAR 5.201 shall be published and any bids or proposals received shall be considered. 10. Other facts: a. Procurement history. Reasonable efforts to retrieve the following items from the computer records, contract files, competition advocate office files or other sources are expected: i. Contract numbers and dates of the last several awards. These items were not previously purchased via a sole source. ii. Competitive status of these actions. --Not applicable iii. Authority previously used for less than full and open competition. --Not applicable. iv. If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, a summary of the contents of paragraph 7 of the justification for that procurement and an explanation of the results. --This is not applicable as there have been no sole source justifications written for previous procurement actions. v. If any prior award was accomplished by full and open competition, detailed explanation of the change circumstances. --Not applicable. vi. An explanation of any unusual patterns which may be revealed by the history, e.g., several consecutive urgent buys. --Not applicable. vii. If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, briefly describe the circumstances justifying the buy and whether there have been any significant changes. --Not applicable. b. Acquisition data availability. No statement of work or purchase descriptions suitable for full and open competition has been developed. c. Unusual compelling urgency. Not applicable. Subcontracting competition: Not applicable