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PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE **NOTICE OF INTENT

NOI-NIAID-23-2174295

NAICS – 492110, Couriers & Express Delivery Services

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 on an other than full and open competition basis with World Courier Inc to procure the safeguard and shipping of human sera survey COVID samples and live breeding pairs of Mastomys in respective dry shippers and cages from Mali to the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) location in Hamilton, MT.

In early 2020, the Laboratory of Virology (LV) started a human clinical trial looking for the prevalence of circulating viruses in Southern Mali. LV has now collected thousands of human samples as part of the study including whole blood, serum and nasal swabs collected at different times in a clinical setting. They also have a cohort of samples from a longitudinal study where LV sampled the population of four (4) sites over the same 3-year period. As the study is ending, the current need is to begin the process of shipping the samples back to the LV lab at RML for analysis. This analysis will include serology to look at prevalence and seroconversion to SARS-CoV-2 over the 3-year time period. The swab samples will be used to examine the spread of variants over this time period as well. World Courier will be used to ship the samples from the LV lab in Bamako Mali to LV lab at RML. These sample are extremely temperature sensitive and are required to be shipped in dry shippers that have been charged with liquid nitrogen. World Courier will safely and reliably ship these types of samples with stops to recharge tanks as needed. Shipping also are 12 cages of live wild caught rodents (mastomys) for maintaining the genetic diversity in the mastomy colony used on RML’s campus. These animals were tested for COVID animal model and may be useful for long COVID pathology. Shipping these sensitive items requires several layers of permits and approvals from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MTFWP). These required permits and approvals have now been garnered with World Courier listed as the responsible shipping party.

The statutory authority for this sole source requirement is 41 U.S.C. 1901 (a) (1) 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-23-2174295) to Dana Monroe at dana.monroe@nih.gov, by 5:00pm eastern daylight savings time May 23, 2023. 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.