This is a SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY. It is neither a solicitation announcement nor a request for proposals or quotes and does not obligate the Government to award a contract. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. Responses to this Sources Sought must be in writing. The purpose of this Sources Sought Announcement is for market research to make appropriate acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge of potential qualified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses, Veteran Owned Small Businesses, 8(a), HubZone and other Small Businesses interested and capable of providing the services described below. Documentation of technical expertise must be presented in sufficient detail for the Government to determine that your company possesses the necessary functional area expertise and experience to compete for this acquisition. Responses to this notice shall include the following: (a) company name (b) address (c) point of contact (d) phone, fax, and email (e) DUNS number (f) Cage Code (g) Tax ID Number (h) Type of small business, e.g. Services Disabled Veteran Owned small Business, Veteran-owned small business, 8(a), HUBZone, Women Owned Small Business, Small disadvantaged business, or Small Business HUBZone business and (i) must provide a capability statement that addresses the organizations qualifications and ability to perform as a contractor for the work described below. The VA Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center (CSPCRPCC) has a requirement to subscribe a web-based (computerized) WHO Drug and Herbal Dictionaries to code concomitant medications (two or more drugs used or given at or almost at the same time, on the same day) being taken by clinical trial subjects. The WHO Drug Dictionary provides a standard for describing drugs and herbal medications. It provides a hierarchy of terms which can be used to describe a subject's medication at various levels of detail. It should be widely accepted as the standard in drug naming and categorization. It is available in electronic format and can be used in conjunction with third-party software, designed for coding non-standard drug descriptions in batch (i.e. dsNavigator). An important reason for coding clinical data is to be able to optimize the analysis of the medicinal products being taken by clinical trial subjects. In order to understand the positive and negative effects of medicinal products one must consider all concomitant medicines they are using, not only a particular product under study or evaluation. The text in a case report - the verbatim - includes information about the drugs taken by the clinical trial subject. This information can be of various types - a trade name, a substance or a very imprecise name of a group of products. The WHO Drug Dictionaries are used to find the names mentioned in the verbatim and translate them to a code, which is entered into the clinical data set. Sometimes other pieces of information are important in order to identify the correct entry in the dictionary - country, pharmaceutical form, etc. The Drug Dictionaries are formatted to let you analyze the coded data. The analysis can help regulators identify substances that may interact with products under investigation, and to make the best decisions based on the full understanding of the drugs and how they are used. When the code is entered into the clinical data set it makes it possible to retrieve all information about the drug when assessing and analyzing the data. It also makes it possible to produce reports - regulatory report or internal. The WHO Drug Dictionaries should consist of medicinal product names - both proprietary and non-proprietary - from more than 90 countries. The dictionaries contain information about prescription-only, over-the-counter and pharmacist-dispensed products. Vaccines, blood products, diagnostic substances and contrast media are also included. All drugs in the WHO Drug Dictionary Enhanced are classified according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification - ATC. Through this hierarchical way of grouping medicinal products it is possible to analyze the data according to therapeutic usage, to pharmacological sites of action and to aspects of chemical structure; or some combination of those. The WHO Drug Dictionaries and their built-in hierarchies are developed to solve drug safety/ pharmacovigilance problems, coding analysis, regulatory reporting and to classify drugs recorded in adverse drug reaction case reports. Important information: The Government is not obligated to nor will it pay for or reimburse any costs associated with responding to this sources sought synopsis request. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued. If response by Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business firms proves inadequate, an alternate set-aside or full and open competition may be determined. No sub-contracting opportunity is anticipated. The North American Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541712 500 employees. Notice to potential offerors: All offerors who provide goods or services to the United States Federal Government must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR located on the web at www.ccr.gov). It is desirable that any Offeror to have completed their business Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA). Additionally, all Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses or Veteran Owned Businesses who respond to a solicitation on this project must be registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Veterans Enterprise VetBiz Registry located at http://vip.vetbiz.gov. All interested Offerors should submit information by e-mail, mail or ground carrier to: Southern AZ VA HealthCare System, Contracting Section (9-90C) Building 5 Room 201, 3601 S. 6th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85743 or by e-mail to
[email protected]. All information submissions to be marked Attn: L. Danielle Provencio, Contracting Officer (9-90C) and should be received no later than 3:30 pm Pacific Time on January 14, 2011. After review of the responses to this announcement, the Government intends to proceed with the acquisition and a subsequent solicitation will be published.