FOR COVID-19: GENSCRIPT SEQUENCING

This is a Notice of Intent, not a request for proposal.  The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to negotiate with other than full and open competition basis with Genscript USA Incorporated, 860 Centennial Ave, Piscataway, NJ 08854.

The mission of the NIH Vaccine Research Center (VRC) is to facilitate the development of vaccines against HIV-AIDS. Our goal is to develop immunogens that will elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies and will be used in vaccine design. One of the aims of the project is to obtain atomic level structures of the envelope glycoproteins that are the sole exterior target for neutralizing antibodies. Another aim is to develop neutralizing antibodies against HIV.

Vaccine immunogens are custom designed at VRC and thus is not commercially available. The DNA plasmids for the designed vaccine immunogens and antibodies will be synthesized by a service provider in order to be expressed and purified at VRC for further characterization.

We have been using Genscript for DNA synthesis services for this COVID-19 ongoing project, and it has proven to support our protocols in the development of vaccines for HIV and other viruses. Changing provider now will compromise the integrity of our data.

No substitutions are accepted for this project.

The statutory authority for this sole source requirement is 41 U.S.C.1901 (e) (2) as implemented by FAR 13.106-1 only one responsible source and no other supply of service will satisfy agency requirements. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. 

All responsible sources that could provide comparable services may submit a capability statement that will be considered by email (subject line to reference NOI-NIAID-2103176) to Skye Duffner at skye.duffner@nih.gov, by 10:00 am eastern standard time, December 27, 2021.  All responses received by the closing date of this synopsis will be considered by the Government.  A determination not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.