Inactive

This is a sources sought announcement only. All responses will be used for market analysis in determining the availability of potential qualified businesses that may be used to determine appropriate a... This is a sources sought announcement only. All responses will be used for market analysis in determining the availability of potential qualified businesses that may be used to determine appropriate acquisition strategy. No solicitation is being issued at this time but may be issued later. The Columbia VA Healthcare System located at 6439 Garners Ferry Road, Columbia, South Carolina, 29209 is seeking sources that can provide tissue staining equipment that meets the minimum salient characteristics identified below. The North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) Code proposed for the requirement is 334516, Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing. The Business Size is 1000 employees. The Government is interested in all small businesses including Small Business, 8(a), Historically Underutilized Business Zone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, Veteran Owned and Woman Owned Small Businesses that are interested in performing this requirement. The Government requests interested parties submit a response which includes a brief description of their company's business size (i.e. annual revenues and employee size), business status (i.e., Small Business, SDB, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOB, etc.), anticipated teaming arrangements (i.e. prime contractor/subcontractor, joint venture, mentor protege relationship, etc.), and a description of same/similar services offered to the Government and to commercial customers. Any responses involving teaming agreements should delineate between the work that will be accomplished by the prime and the work accomplished by the teaming partners. The Government will use this information in determining its small business set-aside decision. No pricing input is being requested. This Sources Sought Notice is issued for market research in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 10. Additional information regarding this requirement will be posted for viewing on BetaSam at https://www.betasam.gov as it becomes available. All potential offerors are reminded that lack of registration in the System for Award Management (https://www.sam.gov) will make an offeror ineligible for contract award. NOTE: It is the responsibility of all potential offerors to monitor the FedBizOpps web site for release of any future synopses or release of the solicitation and any associated amendments. Submissions to this notice may be emailed to the Contract Specialist for this requirement, Flora Ford, 803-776-4000, Ext: 6782; flora.ford@va.gov When emailing your response, please note that due to increased firewall protections some emails may be blocked; therefore, follow-up via telephone (if an acknowledgement is not received back via email) is strongly recommended to ensure receipt of your submission by the Government. Any information provided by industry to the Government because of this sources sought synopsis is strictly voluntary. Responses will not be returned. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise because of contractor submission of responses, or the Government's use of such information. SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS Barcode Driven Technology Reagents and Protocols Testing protocols are pre-programmed in the Benchmark ULTRA software; barcode labels are printed to associate slides with specific protocols and reagents The Benchmark ULTRA s barcode driven technology allows automatic input of data for the reagent delivery system with the associated slide protocol label Barcoded reagents facilitate the Benchmark ULTRA s inventory tracking system Continuous and Random Access Operation The Benchmark ULTRA functions as a continuous and random access IHC/ISH platform. Slides, reagents and self-contained waste system can be simultaneously accessed as the system is processing samples Slides can be removed and added continually during normal operation Individual slide drawers, individually plumed bulk reagents and arch design of the reagent dispensing carousel enable the Benchmark ULTRA s efficient and continuous access processing feature Individual Slide Heating Pads The individual slide heater pads are precision heated and maintained at various temperatures to facilitate staining reactions Individual micro-controlled slide heating o 35°C incrementally to 42°C and Ambient antibody incubation Ambient to 100°C in under three minutes 100°C to 35°C in under seven minutes The precise temperature control of the individual slide heater pads enable online denaturation and hybridization utilized in the automated DNA In-Situ Hybridization (ISH) and mRNA In-Situ Hybridization protocols. Enables automated baking of paraffin sections Proprietary Bulk Reagents and Volume Adjust Feature Ventana bulk reagents with heat enable the following fully automated reactions during the staining process: Deparaffinization with EZ-Prep- proprietary bulk reagent Cell Conditioning or epitope unmasking with ULTRA CC1 and ULTRA CC2 proprietary bulk reagents Antibody incubation and precise Volume Adjust with Reaction Buffer proprietary bulk reagent Facilitates the use of only 100ul of antibody for full slide coverage Stringency wash for In-Situ Hybridization procedures with SSC proprietary bulk reagent ULTRA Liquid Coverslip ULTRA LCS The application of Liquid Coverslip facilitates complete slide coverage of reagents, accomplished with Reaction Buffer and only 100 l of antibody ULTRA LCS is automatically applied during a staining run and forms an incubation chamber on each slide, preventing the aqueous reagent from evaporating to facilitate the staining reaction ULTRA LCS allows the utilization of Heat and Air Vortex Mixing by preventing sample wash off and dehydration Air Vortex Mixing Jets of air are precisely applied to create a clockwise and counter clock-wise mixing pattern of the reagents on the slides during staining reactions Air Vortex reagent mixing increases the reaction kinetics of antibody and probe to their respective binding sites Reagent Dispensers The Ventana Benchmark ULTRA utilizes self-contained, pre-diluted and pre-packaged, antibodies, probes and detection kits that are ready to use out of the box The dispensers are pre-filled with reagents optimized for the system and ensure only 100 l of reagent per dispense The pre-filled Ventana dispensers provide vendor verified quality control of reagents and antibodies The dispenser filled detection systems are required for each protocol run on the Ventana Benchmark series instruments User-fillable dispensers are available f for 3rd party antibodies and ancillary reagents for flexible protocol requirements Buffer Jet Slide Rinse Complete removal of reagent between steps Decreases background artifacts on slide Increases reproducibility by ensuring standardization. Each slide is rinsed with the exact amount of reagent specified and a controlled amount of fluid remains on the slide between steps in the protocol. The Dispensers are pre-filled with reagents optimized for the system and ensure only 100 l of reagent is dispensed per test (IHC). The pre-filled Ventana dispensers provide vendor verified quality control of reagents and antibodies. Must be able to run Ventana Benchmark series instruments. Ultimate Reagent Access Improved turnaround times and efficiencies implementing Lean Six Sigma single piece flow . Immediately process STAT and late-arriving samples. Provide consistent high-quality slides. Eliminates bottlenecks in lab batch and mini-batch practices. Capacity and Throughput 30 independent slide positions o Up to 90 IHC slides in one eight-hour shift PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS: The unit must be able to provide fully automated baking, deparaffinization and staining of Special stains in Histology. The unit should be able to reduce technicians exposure to harmful chemicals with ready-to-use staining kits. The unit must have 1-20 slides with independent temperature control for each position. The unit must have reagent carousel with 20-25 reagent position. The unit must have the ability to stain slides 25 mm x 75 mm, 1in x 3 in or 26 mm x 76 mm Superfrost Plus. The unit must have up to 4 bulk fluids in 3 to 6-liter on-board containers. This will improve efficiency and ensure adequate fluid capacity with integrated bulk reagent and waste sensing. The unit must be free standing or modified benchtop installation. The unit should run any test next to any other test with independent slide heating. Help protect patient samples with individual slide staining take it further with VENTANA VANTAGE workflow solution for patient sample chain of custody. The unit must appreciate features like easy slide loading and unloading, ready-to-use kits and an integrated retractable work surface. Maintenance: A technical assistance center shall be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Equipment repair shall be provided during core business hours. M-F 8a-5p. Certain circumstances may dictate the need for repair service to be conducted outside routine business hours. All arrangements shall be coordinated between the Contractor and the COR of this contract. Preventative maintenance will be performed as frequently as published in manufacturer s operator s manual and within 2 weeks of the scheduled due date. Upgrades: The Contractor shall provide upgrades to both the equipment hardware and software in order to maintain the integrity of the system and the state-of-the art technology at no charge to the government. These shall be provided as they become commercially available and at the same time they are being provided to commercial customers. This requirement only applies to system upgrades that enhance the model of equipment being offered, i.e. new version of software, correction of hardware defect, upgrade offered to commercial customers at no additional charge, upgrade to replace model of equipment no longer Contractor supported, etc. This does not refer to replacing the original piece of equipment, it does refer to significant changes in the hardware operational capability. Ancillary support equipment: The Contractor shall provide, install and maintain any and all ancillary support equipment to fully operate the analyzer. Contractor shall include all ancillary components that are customarily sold or provided with the model of equipment proposed. Commercial offerings: The Contractor shall provide any additional support material this is routinely provided to equivalent commercial customers and assists in regulatory compliance, e.g. Computer disks containing their procedure manual in CLSI format or an on-line procedure manual in the instrument software.