Notice of Intent to Sole Source the Procurement of Weekly Delivery of Turkey, Chicken, Guinea Pig, and Horse Red Blood Cells

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for a sole-source requirement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intends to award a sole source firm fixed price contract for weekly delivery of turkey, chicken, guinea pig, and horse red blood cells (RBCs) under product service code (PSC) 6505-Drugs and Biologicals and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code) 325414-Blood derivatives manufacturing, manufactured by Lampire Biological Laboratories for use in hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays performed by the CDC- National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD)-Influenza Division.

The required capability is the ability to consistently provide RBCs with the biological performance characteristics necessary to support validated HI assay methods and maintain continuity of CDC influenza surveillance data. The required RBCs must be produced using manufacturing, donor sourcing, collection, processing, quality control, and storage practices that yield consistent hemagglutination performance across all required animal species.

The products must demonstrate compatibility with the Influenza Division's validated assay protocols and preserve comparability with historical antigenic characterization data used for routine influenza surveillance, FluView reporting, and influenza vaccine strain selection.

Lampire Biological Laboratories is the only known manufacturer whose turkey, chicken, guinea pig, and horse RBCs have been validated for these established CDC HI assay protocols and have consistently demonstrated the performance characteristics required to maintain continuity of longitudinal surveillance data. Use of RBCs from another manufacturer would require extensive validation to establish equivalency and assess impacts on assay performance and historical data comparability.

Until such equivalency is demonstrated, no other manufacturer's products will satisfy the Government's minimum requirement to support uninterrupted, consistent influenza surveillance. No solicitation will be published for this requirement. This notice is issued solely to determine whether there are any responsible sources capable of meeting the Government's requirements.

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, all capability statements, or responses received within five (5) days of the issuance of this notice shall be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

Any capability statement, or response should be emailed to the Contract Specialist, Ada Torres Vega, at cbp0@cdc.gov no later than August 4, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).