Contract award notice
Results of the procurement procedure
Section I: Contracting
entity
I.1) Name and addresses
Department of Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU
UK
E-mail: procurement.operations@dhsc.gov.uk
NUTS: UKI32
Internet address(es)
Main address: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
Address of the buyer profile: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
I.4) Type of the contracting authority
Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions
I.5) Main activity
Health
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
Provision of LamPORE Testing Materials and Equipment for Covid-19 Testing
II.1.2) Main CPV code
38911000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Supplies
II.1.4) Short description
Provision of LamPORE machines, tests and associated support. LamPORE is the pairing of a loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) that selectively amplifies the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the original sample, and Nanopore sequencing, for precise analysis of the viral genetic material.
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.1.7) Total value of the procurement
Value excluding VAT:
112 656 096.00
GBP
II.2) Description
II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
33141625
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UK
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
Provision of LamPORE machines, tests and associated support. LamPORE is the pairing of a loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) that selectively amplifies the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the original sample, and Nanopore sequencing, for precise analysis of the viral genetic material.
II.2.5) Award criteria
Price
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
No
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition
Justification for selected award procedure:
The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason: absence of competition for technical reasons
Explanation
Negotiated procedure without prior publication
1) The Covid-19 outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern as declared by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020. The WHO Director General characterised Covid-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
2) A key element of ensuring an effective response to the pandemic is ensuring that there is adequate testing. Therefore, the scaling up of laboratory capacity is critical to this response. This contract supports the national testing programme, in particular Pillar 2.
3) DHSC is satisfied the tests permitting use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication (Regulation 32(2)(c)) are met:
A. As far as is strictly necessary: the provision of testing equipment to provide Covid-19 detection testing to support the UK response to Covid-19 was identified as strictly necessary to meet the demand to scale up the testing programme.
B. There are genuine reasons for extreme urgency: It is responding to Covid-19 immediately because of public health risks presenting a genuine emergency.
C. The events that have led to the need for extreme urgency were unforeseeable: the Commission itself confirmed: ‘The current coronavirus crisis presents an extreme and unforeseeable urgency – precisely for such a situation our European rules enable public buyers to buy within a matter of days, even hours, if necessary.’ (Commissioner Breton, Internal Market, 1 April 2020).
D. It is impossible to comply with the usual timescales in the PCR: due to the urgency of the situation there was no time to run an accelerated procurement under the open, restricted or competitive procedures with negotiation as there was an urgent requirement to ensure provision of testing equipment.
4) The situation is not attributable to the contracting authority – DHSC has not done anything to cause or contribute to the need for extreme urgency.
5) DHSC is also satisfied the tests permitting use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication under Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) and Regulation 32(b)(iii) are met because the supplier is the sole provider of the goods and services covered due to
(i) technical reasons; and
(ii) the suppliers exclusive rights in respect of the goods.
6) As the LamPORE machines and tests are unique and covered by exclusive intellectual property rights owned by the supplier there is no reasonable alternative or substitute source of the testing equipment covered by the contract.
IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
Yes
Section V: Award of contract
A contract/lot is awarded:
Yes
V.2 Award of contract
V.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
30/07/2020
V.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 1
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators:
No
V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd
05386273
Gosling Building Edmund Halley Road, Oxford Science Park
Oxford
OX4 4DQ
UK
E-mail: tim.cowper@nanopore.tech.comh
NUTS: UK
Internet address(es)
URL: https://nanoporetech.com/
The contractor is an SME:
Yes
V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Total value of the contract/lot:
: 112 656 096.00
GBP
V.2.5) Information about subcontracting
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
The High Court
Strand
London
WC2A 2LL
UK
Internet address(es)
URL: https://www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
02/10/2020