Preclinical Medications Screening in Genetic Models of Alcoholism

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) intends to solicit a contract with Indiana University to address the present and anticipated future needs of NIAAA's Medication Development Program of the Division of Neuroscience and Behavior's (DNB) Preclinical Medication Efficacy Testing Program. DNB seeks to award a follow-on contract to continue the blind testing of reference compounds [including those previously tested by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Clinical Investigations Group (NCIG) program] and proprietary compounds in P rats and HAD1 rats selectively bred for alcohol preference. The contract will use mechanisms having intellectual property conditions favorable to compound providers. This will eliminate a major barrier to testing optimized compounds having preclinical as well as clinical toxicology data and will stimulate interest by the pharmaceutical industry in developing high quality, marketable compounds for alcoholism. Pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) as set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) at 6.302-1, Indiana University is the only source capable of providing this requirement to the NIAAA. The acquisition explicitly requires that the contractor perform tests in alcohol preferring P and HAD1 rats, proprietary rat lines produced and supplied by Indiana University. These rats are the leading genetic models of alcohol dependence in the United States and work during the current contract period was performed in these animals. A sole source acquisition is justified because the required selectively-bred P and HAD1 rats are only available from Indiana University. Although, technically speaking, an alternative Offeror could arrange to obtain these rat lines from Indiana University, this would result in a conflict situation, and would essentially create a false perception of open competition. It would also not be feasible for another Offeror to do this work without inherent duplication of costs to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. In addition, Indiana University possesses reference data required for comparison with proprietary compounds to be tested in this acquisition. The anticipated period of performance is September 29, 2014 to September 28, 2015. The contract will comprise a 12-month base period and four (4) 12-month option periods, each of which may be exercised unilaterally by the Government for a total potential period of performance of 60 months. This is not a request for proposals (RFP), proposal abstracts, or quotations and does not commit the Government to any contractual agreement. A Sources Sought Notice, outlining the requirements above, was posted as NIAAA-SSN-2014-03-PDM on September 4, 2013 and resulted in no qualified capability statements. All responsible sources may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirements as described above and will be considered by the agency. A determination not to compete the proposed work based upon responses is solely within the discretion of the Contracting Officer. This notice of intent is not an announcement of the availability of a Request for Proposals, nor is an RFP available.