DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION UNDER SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS IN ACCORDANCE WITH FAR 13.5 Acquisition Plan Action ID: 36C246-20-AP-3720 Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Network Contracting Office (NCO) 6, Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) 6, Asheville, Durham, Hampton, and Salisbury VA Medical Centers. Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Processed: This procurement is for the supply of Roche Diagnostics reagents, stains, and supplies for the Roche Ventana, HE600, Benchmark special, and Benchmark Ultra analyzers in accordance with FAR 13.5 Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items and specifically FAR 13.501 Special Documentation Requirements, where acquisitions conducted under Simplified Acquisition Procedures are exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6, but still require a justification using the format of FAR 6.303-2. This will be a sole source acquisition to Roche Diagnostics Corporation for a new firm-fixed-price indefinite delivery requirements contract. Description of Supplies/Services Required to Meet the Agency s Needs: The Department of Veteran s Affairs Asheville, Durham, Hampton, and Salisbury VA Medical Centers require the reagents, stains, slide coverslips, and all other consumables for Roche Ventana, HE600, Benchmark special, and Benchmark Ultra analyzers. The period of performance will be 10/01/2020-09/30/2025. Statutory Authority Permitting Restricted Competition: FAR 13.5 Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items. The statutory authority for applying the Simplified Procedures for Commercial Items of FAR 13.5 is 41 U.S.C. § 1901 and is implemented by FAR 13.106-1(b)(2) for restricting competition on this procurement. - Competition is restricted on this procurement for the reason below: - - - - (X) Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements - - - - ( ) Unusual and Compelling Urgency - - - - ( ) - Industrial Mobilization, Engineering, Developmental or Research Capability or Expert Services - - - - ( ) International Agreement - - - - ( ) Authorized or Required by Statute - - - - ( ) National Security - - - - ( ) Public Interest Demonstration that the Contractor s Unique Qualifications or Nature of the Acquisition Requires the Use of the Authority Cited Above (applicability of authority): The VA requires stains, reagents, and supplies that are compatible with the Roche Diagnostic analyzers that the Asheville, Durham, Salem, and Salisbury VAMC facilities own. After contacting Chris Hoff, Government Contracts Manager with Roche Diagnostics, on 06/19/2020, it was discovered that Roche Diagnostics does not allow any small or large third party vendors to distribute its products. Additionally, no other products are compatible with these analyzers. In order to utlize any other stains or reagents, the VA would need to replace the existing equipment at each facility. Accordingly, Roche Diagnostics is the only firm capable of providing the supplies and services described in Section III above without the Veteran s Health Administration experiencing substantial duplication of cost that could not be expected to be recovered through competition. Description of Efforts Made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as deemed practicable: Sources Sought Synopsis: A sources sought synopsis # 36C24620Q0676 was issued from 06/24/2020 to 06/29/2020 seeking any sources, large or small, capable of providing all reagents, dyes, washes and solvents necessary to perform all tests on the Roche Ventana HE 600, Vantage, Benchmark, Ultra, and IHC Stainers. Inquiries were received from Lecia Biosystems, a German based manufacturer of analyzers that could not be verified on SAM.gov; and Dako an Agilent Technologies Company, also a manufacturer of analyzers and could not be verified on SAM.gov. These two firms were both notified that this notice was not for new analyzers, but for the supply of reagents, stains, and supplies for the existing analyzers owned by the facilities; no responses were received. Other Actions: Roche Diagnostics was contacted directly an was ask whether or not they had any authorized distributors or third party products that are authorized for use on their equipment; they replied in the negative. Determination by the CO that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable: The CO will utilize the Independent Government Estimate (IGE) document, P01 IGE Consolidated, in the determination of price reasonableness. It is anticipated that, by joining all four stations together under one contract, extensive discounts will be offered. Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results, or a Statement of the Reasons Market Research Was Not Conducted: Market research was conducted to identify available sources and to evaluate the availability of the marketplace to meet the requirement. None of these efforts have yielded additional potential sources. There is no competition anticipated for this procurement. As described in Section 6 above, market research, in accordance with FAR Part 10, was conducted by a sources sought synopsis of the proposed acquisition, advising industry of the pending acquisition and soliciting inquiries from interested parties. Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other than Full and Open Competition: There are no other facts at this time. Listing of Sources that Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition: No sources indicated an interest as a result of the intent to sole source synopsis posted on GPE (36C24620Q0676) on 08/04/2020. A Statement of the Actions, if any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome any Barriers to Competition before Making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required: No actions are planned to overcome barriers for this requirement because there are no other supplies authorized for use on these analyzers/stainers. A sole source effort is planned for a base year plus four option years in order to achieve the best value for the government by securing quantity discounts.
