The NAICS code applicable to this requirement is 325998 - All Other Miscellaneous Chemical Product and Preparation Manufacturing with associated small business size standard of 500 employees.

BACKGROUND

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people's health and save lives.

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) is a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), whose mission it is to catalyze the generation of innovative methods and technologies that will enhance the development, testing and implementation of diagnostics and therapeutics across a wide range of human diseases and conditions. NCATS was officially established in fiscal year 2012 to transform the translational science process so that new treatments and cures for disease can be delivered to patients faster. NCATS, one of 27 Institutes and Centers (ICs) at NIH, strives to develop innovations to reduce, remove or bypass costly and time-consuming bottlenecks in the translational research pipeline in an effort to speed the delivery of new drugs, diagnostics and medical devices to patients.

The NCATS Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) is tasked with identifying and developing novel small molecule leads against a wide spectrum of human disease targets, which it accomplishes by screening thousands of small molecules in collaboration with both intra-and extramural researchers. In pursuit of this goal, the Center has a strong internal transdisciplinary team of scientists who continually discover novel small molecules and develop novel disease models for application against a wide range of human diseases. NCGC has a potential requirement for two (2) Chemical Libraries totaling an estimated anticipated quantity of over 40,000 specific compounds.

Adding diversity to chemical libraries is imperative to NCGC to screen a variety of targets against these in-house collections. Having such small molecules will make a huge impact in screening against the variety of targets utilized by NCATS. Also, given the outsized role that GPCRs and receptor-mediated signaling pathways have in the pain/addiction fields, these libraries will also help NCGC address an upcoming anticipated influx of collaborative projects in these scienitifc areas. These well-curated and focused chemical libraries will help serve as important toolsets for pain/addiction and other projects, and will be ideal first-pass library choices for these collaborations, in terms of assay validation, control molecule identification and preliminary screening.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this potential requirement is to obtain two (2) Chemical Libraries totaling an estimated anticipated quantity of over 40,000 specific compounds. NCATS is in need of two GPCR-focused small molecule libraries - covering both general (anticipated over 27,000 compounds) and allosteric (anticipated over 13,000 compounds) mechanisms - to be added to NCGC's panel of screening libraries. Once integrated onto NCATS's panel of screening libraries, the GPCR-focused collections will enable access to tens of thousands of opioid/pain-relevant GPCR-related molecules, and provide an important first-pass library choice for anticipated opioid-related collaborative projects. The biologically-relevant focus of these libraries, along with the novel chemical space represented therein, will allow NCATS facilities to proceed with their mission while providing focus on pain/addiction-related projects with specific technological requirements, as compared to the current screening libraries, which lack this specific pain-implicated focus.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
This Small Business Sources Sought notice seeks responses from qualified sources that are capable of providing the following salient service requirements of this potential government requirement deemed as the essential features needing to be achieved. Offerors to this Sources Sought notice shall possess the capability of achieving the following general requirements:

Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all the necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise provided by the Government as needed to perform the Statement of Work below. Vendor shall be responsible for providing the following:

1. Small molecule libraries comprised of GPCR ligands/modulators generally known to the scientific community representing both competitive and allosteric mechanisms, as well as pharmacophore-derived potential modulators, across a variety of receptor classes/families

2. Compounds at 2mg/powder or 400ul/10mM DMSO solution each, packaged in NCATS-supplied Matrix tubes at 88 compounds per plate

3. Small molecules guaranteed to have a purity of >90% (accuracy +/-5%) that is to be confirmed by NMR and/or LCMS spectra

Delivery Date:
Vendor shall deliver compounds and results within approximately 4-6 weeks after receipt of tubes from NCATS.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES
NCATS will provide 2mg barcoded tubes.

DELIVERY OR DELIVERABLES
Vendor shall provide the following deliverables:

1. Electronic information, in addition to the molecules themselves, for each required molecule: chemical structure or simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES) or equivalent chemical structure information, supplier ID, plate ID, well location, tube ID, concentration in millimolar, and volume in microliters. This information shall be provided via email referencing individual compound vial barcodes;

2. Delivery of small molecules in the Government-provided vials to NCATS, located at 9800 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, to include shipping and handling. Samples will be delivered as 2mg in barcoded tubes provided by NCATS.

CAPABILITY STATEMENT / INFORMATION SOUGHT
Interested parties are expected to review this notice to familiarize itself with the requirements of this project. Failure to do so will be at your firm's own risk.

Respondents must provide clear and convincing evidence of possessing the knowedge, skills, abilities and experience to successfully perform the requirements described in this announcement. Detailed past experience in implementing similar requirements to the requirement described in this announcement must be clearly delineated in any response provided. Respondents must provide clear and convincing documentation of their capability in providing analytical quality control and any other requirements and services specified in this notice. Respondents must provide a general overview of the respondents' opinions about the difficulty and /or feasibility of the potential requirement, and any information regarding innovative ideas or concepts.

The Respondent must also provide information in sufficient detail of the respondents' (a) staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) corporate experience and management capability; and (e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information.

The respondent must also provide their DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HubZone, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code and any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the acquisition requirements.

One (1) copy of the response is required and must be in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format using 11-point or 12-point font, 8-1/2" x 11" paper size, with 1" top, bottom, left and right margins, and with single or double spacing. The response is limited to ten (10) pages. The 10-page limit does not include the cover page, executive summary, CV's or references, if requested.

The information submitted must be must be in and outline format that addresses each of the elements of the product requirement. A cover page and an executive summary may be included but is not required.

The response must include the respondents' technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses.

All responses to this notice must be submitted electronically to the Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer. Facsimile responses are NOT accepted.

The response MUST reference the solicitation number and be submitted electronically to Mr. Hunter Tjugum at [email protected] prior to the closing date specified in this announcement. The response must be received on or before the closting date/time specified in this announcement.

CONCLUDING STATEMENTS
Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).