Up to $992M for USAF Health-Care Staffing

The USAF Medical Service needs qualified health care workers to provide direct patient care services inside military treatment facilities, and to act as extensions of the military treatment facilities within the United States and Guam. The 773rd ESG/PKJ at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH received 26 proposals, and issued 23 multiple-award, indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity fixed-firm-price contracts with a maximum total value of of $992 million. This sort of contract is not uncommon; the US Army does the same thing.

Recipient will be eligible to bid on specific delivery orders, and each is guaranteed only $5,000 as a way of offsetting bid expenses. Winners included:

2011: Tidings of Comfort in Boston

USNS Comfort, Haiti 2010

Boston Ship Repair, LLC in Boston, MA recently won a $9.2 million firm-fixed-price contract for a 60-day regular overhaul/dry-docking of Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort [T-AH-20] for ship repair and maintenance. Work will include dry-docking and undocking of the ship; tank preservation; freeboard preservation; underwater hull painting; switchboard upgrade, sea valve repair; and pump overhauls. The contract includes options which could raise its value to $11.9 million.

Comfort’s primary mission is to provide emergency, on-site care for deployed U.S. military forces, and the ship is also used extensively for humanitarian engagement missions around the world. Work will be performed in Boston, MA, and is expected to be complete by April 13/12. This contract was competitively procured via a solicitation posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, with more than 50 companies solicited and 3 offers received. US Navy Military Sealift Fleet Support Command manages the contract (N40442-12-C-5001).

Portable Plasma? Enter Entegrion’s Resusix

On the front lines

Your friend is on the ground, bleeding out. If you can’t replace the lost circulation volume, he’ll die quickly from shock. If the replacement you use hinders clotting, his odds to make it through the Golden Hour aren’t good. The bad news? Because of your location, frozen blood plasma isn’t available.

Entegrion, Inc. in Durham, NC thinks they have an answer, and the US Army is funding it with up to $43.8 million, to advance Resusix through phase II and phase III trials. What is Resusix?

DARPA Looking to Harness RNA for Vaccines

RNA vs. DNA

In September 2011, the RN Armor Vax international consortium in Orlando, FL received a $17.3 million technology investment agreement from US DARPA. Their research and development program is designed to “identify, investigate, and develop candidate RNA vaccines against infectious disease.” Work will be performed in Orlando, FL (19.59%); Lyon, France (11.93%); Tubingen, Germany (56.62%); and Nantes, France (11.86%). The work is expected to be completed by September 2015. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency manages the contract (HR0011-11-3-0001).

RNA is very useful for synthesizing proteins. This has led to research into ways of using it as a trigger, so that cells synthesize very specific proteins that will kill tumor cells, trigger correct immune responses, or perform other related functions. Dendritic immune cells, for instance, which stimulate the production of defensive killer T-cells, are a useful vector for RNA codes that direct the production of specific proteins. Another interesting function is RNA-enhanced vaccines using “silencing RNA,” which shuts down specific proteins in the cells that process a vaccine. That lets the vaccine offer more of an antibody response, which is very useful for parasitic infections, or create more of a cellular-kill response for viral infections.

DTRA & Achaogen Targeting Class A Bacterial Pathogens

Latest updates[?]: Another research contract; WSJ Top 50.

Achaogen in San Francisco, CA is working on “preclinical development of novel therapeutics that reduce the virulence of, and inhibit resistance in, Class A Bacterial Pathogens.” Achaogen closed a $26 million round of venture financing in October 2006, and they had raised $103 million in equity by March 2011. Their approach focuses on small molecules that inhibit the emergence of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Initial efforts had the goal of making the bacteria susceptible to existing fluoroquinolones, and potentially to other classes of antibacterial drugs.

So, just what are “Class A bacterial pathogens?” You certainly know some of them by name.

Harvard Gets $6.7M to Model Virus Evolution

Aug 30/11: The President and Fellows of Harvard College in Cambridge, MA receive a $6.7 million cost reimbursement contract for research to develop technologies and approaches to predict natural viral evolution. We’d all benefit from that, but we’re still likely to be surprised by what actually happens.

Work will be performed in Cambridge, MA (39%); Laurel, MD (37%); Baltimore, MD (9%); Ann Arbor, MI (9%); and Pittsburgh, PA (5%). Work is expected to be completed by Aug 31/12. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) manages the contract (HR0011-11-C-0093).

Evergreen in Alaska: FY 2012 Heli-Support

Aug 25/11: Evergreen Helicopters, Inc. in McMinnville, OR received a $16.5 million firm-fixed-price contract, to provide medical evacuation services and training support for the U.S. Army in Alaska. Work will be performed in Fairbanks, AK, with an estimated completion date of Aug 31/12. Four bids were solicited, with 2 bids received by the U.S. Army Mission & Installation Contracting Command at Fort Wainright, AK (W912D0-11-D-0002).

Evergreen Helicopters has been working stateside with the US military for some time, and is also contracted to help with heli-lift in Afghanistan. Their fleet is a diverse array of types.

Up to $497M for 5 Years of USN Medical Research Support

(click to visit)

Aug 16/11: U.S. Army Contracting Command, Natick, MA issues a multiple-award 5-year umbrella framework worth up to $497 million, implemented as a firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract between 26 (23) contractors. Winners will compete to provide US Navy Medicine Research and Development services with personnel, materials, equipment, facilities, science, and technology “that will sustain an acceptable level of medical research.” They included…

$492M to Staff Some US Military Hospitals

Walter Reed Army Hospital

July 25/11: Medical care is becoming a significant item in the US defense budget, and its growth is a source of concern. Most of that relates to health care benefits, but the US military also pays to staff its facilities with doctors and nurses. The USA Healthcare Acquisition Activity in Frederick, MD recently issues a $492 million multiple-award contract to 3 of 40 contractors, for just that purpose at Medical Treatment Facilities in the D.C. National Capital Region (NCR), as well as logical extensions of those facilities in Maryland/DC/Northern Virginia, West Virginia, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Thew winning contractors will provide physician, nursing and ancillary services to July 2015. See also FBO.gov notice. The winners will compete for task orders under this umbrella contract:

• Healthcare Services of North America, joint venture in Petal, MS (W91YTZ-11-D0015)
  
• Magnum Opus Technologies, San Antonio, TX (W91YTZ-11-D0016)
  
• Nurse Etc. Staffing in Universal City, TX (W91YTZ-11-D0017).

TribalCo wins US SOCOM Contract for CASEVAC Medical Sets

Tribalco, LLC in Bethesda, MD receives an option on a 4-year indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for the purchase of tactical combat casualty care sets in support of U.S. Special Operations Command. The goal for the CASEVAC Set is to have individual modules (Extraction, Mobility, Transport, Sustainment) capable of being used independently, based on a grab-and-go mentality. This option will increase the total estimated contract ceiling to $54.6 million. Work will be performed in Bethesda, MD, and is expected to be complete in 2015. This contract was awarded through competitive acquisition, but in accordance with limits allowed in 10 U.S.C. 2305(b)(4)(B) and 41 U.S.C. 253b(d)(3).

Tribalco is a certified small business formed by the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. Their declared specialty is telecommunications, rather than the portable medical kits with monitors, trauma gear, medication, defibrillator, crash extractors, spinal boards, mountain rescue equipment, etc. required here. Even so, the special provisions that U.S. SOCOM is citing involve only limiting proposals to a highly rated subset of contractors, and prompt notification, rather than native business or small business set-asides. That’s because the 100% small business set aside was already taken care of in the April 5/10 pre-solicitation, and the TCCC CASEVAC contract was structured as a test-off and downselect to 1 vendor. Tribalco LLC appears to have beaten fellow Sept 2/10 awardees Tactical & Survival Specialties, Inc. and Remote Medical, Inc. for the production contract (H92222-10-D-0023). See also FBO solicitation.