Supply of Product and Manufacturing Engineers for UK Lateral Flow Team (LFT) Upscale Project Accelerator Team

Concepts

• plant engineering design
• supply of product
• uk lateral flow team
• supply of product and manufacturing engineers for uk lateral flow team
• manufacturing engineers
• upscale project accelerator team
• lft

Location

United Kingdom:

Description

Supply of Product and Manufacturing Engineers for UK Lateral Flow Team (LFT) Upscale Project Accelerator Team

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 71323200 - Plant engineering design services

Legal Justification

The Value of Contract (inc. any possible extensions, exc. VAT) stated in this Contract Award Notice is not a committed value for the contract but a cap. 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, ensuring surge LFT capacity, including sufficient availability of Lateral Flow Tests, is critical. 3. Mass testing of the UK Population is a key step in bringing the Pandemic under control. (Lateral Flow Tests produce quicker results than the current PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test, and do not require a lab processing step.) LFT tests have only recently become viable as a means of testing, with multiple tests being progressed through to certification and approval. This was unforeseen by the DHSC and outside its control.4. DHSC's market analysis data demonstrates that the global market for LFT is volatile and highly competitive. Global manufacturing capability is limited to circa 120m units per day. Demand often outstrips supply. DHSC requirement is driven by the progress of the pandemic (including emerging variants), the changing efficacy of available LTF products and the severity of the second wave/national R-number. That requirement means that the UK must make substantial purchases of tests during a short manufacturing window.5. DHSC has been tasked with ensuring security of supply of a critical consumable asset (Lateral Flow Antigen tests) in a volatile and competitive global market place. This contract pursues that mandate by providing critical support to LFT manufacturers to scale up their production to meet the quantities mandated by the UK government for the programme. 6. A market engagement exercise for DHSC was carried out at pace due to the urgent requirement and, through this engagement the Supplier was identified as being able to offer a directly relevant package of support to the selected manufacturers. 7. 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 surge LFT capacity was identified as strictly necessary to meet the demand to scale up the testing programme in the UK.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, 01.04.2020).D. It is impossible to comply with the usual timescales in the PCR: It is not possible to comply with the timescales of another procedure due to the urgent requirement to ensure effective surge capacity.E. The situation is not attributable to the contracting authority – DHSC has not done anything to cause or contribute to the need for extreme urgency

Other Information

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