MALDI Biotyper Sirius CA

The Department of Veterans Affairs, through Network Contracting Office 20 in Vancouver, WA, has issued a Sources Sought Announcement for the MALDI Biotyper Sirius CA system to support clinical diagnostics at the Puget Sound VA Medical Center in Seattle, WA. This announcement is for market research purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation, request for proposals, or binding obligation to award a contract. Respondents are required to submit written responses via email by May 11, 2026, at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, with the subject line “MALDI Biotyper,” to Nicholas Heintz at Nicholas.Heintz@va.gov. The system must be an FDA-approved, automated MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry platform capable of identifying over 488 microbial species—including Candida auris, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, yeast, and filamentous fungi—from diverse clinical specimens within 15 to 20 minutes post-blood culture positivity. The system must meet stringent performance benchmarks such as ≤4 minutes from plate loading to data acquisition, ≤2 minutes per identification, and throughput of 600 samples per hour, while operating quietly at under 50 dB and consuming less than 400W of power. It must include integrated modules for sepsis detection and fungi identification with FDA-cleared libraries, have a minimum 7-year laser lifetime, and operate on a standard 110V power supply. The procurement is initially restricted to Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) under NAICS code 334516, with a fallback to full and open competition if insufficient qualified responses are received. Respondents must be authorized resellers of the manufacturer’s system and must be currently registered in SAM.gov. No subcontracting is anticipated. Responses must indicate company size status, provide a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), and confirm compliance with the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 and Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines for accuracy and precision. While no formal evaluation factors, pricing data, payment terms, delivery schedules, or inspection criteria are specified at this stage, the system must include a mycobacteria identification module and a beta-lactamase resistance detection module. Packaging, marking, and invoicing requirements are not yet defined and will be established in any subsequent solicitation. All submissions must be submitted electronically in readable formats such as .docx, .pdf, or plain text, with no telephone responses