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
Abbott IP
II.1.2) Main CPV code
33141625
II.1.3) Type of contract
Supplies
II.1.4) Short description
Supply of goods (test kits) for 2 months for use as part of the UK Covid-19 testing strategy in support of Pillar 1 (NHS swab testing).
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.1.7) Total value of the procurement
Value excluding VAT:
8 963 711.99
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
Supply of goods (test kits) for 2 months for use as part of the UK Covid-19 testing strategy in support of Pillar 1 (NHS swab testing).
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
II.2.14) Additional information
Supply of goods (test kits) for 2 months for use as part of the UK Covid-19 testing strategy in support of Pillar 1 (NHS swab testing).
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: protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights
Explanation
Procurement in reliance on reg.32(2)(b)(iii) of the PCR 2015
1) DHSC understands, from enquiries made from its own technical experts, that the Abbott test instruments referred to above are a ‘closed’ platform, meaning that only goods manufactured by Abbott can work with it.
2) Reg.32(2) provides that the negotiated procedure without prior publication (i.e. the making of a direct award) may be used for a public supply contract: ‘(b) where the works, supplies or services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons.: ... (iii) the protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights, but only... where no reasonable alternative or substitute exists and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement”.
3) Based on DHSC’s understanding, this requirement has been met thus:
• the supplies can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for the protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights — Abbott has exclusive intellectual property rights over the testing laboratory systems and therefore are the only supplier that can provide the testing kits to work on the instruments already in use in the relevant laboratories;
• no reasonable alternative or substitute exists — the instruments run on a closed system and therefore can only use testing kits made by Abbott, and therefore no reasonable alternative exists;
• the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement — this is not the case, as has been mentioned previously this procurement is part of a procurement strategy by the UK government to increase testing capacity exponentially to meet demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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
27/04/2020
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
Abbott Laboratories Ltd
00329102
Abbott House Vanwall Business Park, Vanwall Road, Maidenhead
Berkshire
SL6 4XE
UK
E-mail: michael.worth@abbott.com
NUTS: UK
The contractor is an SME:
Yes
V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot:
Total value of the contract/lot:
: 8 963 712.00
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