Provision of Lateral Flow Test Device Vision Reader

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Yes (GPA)

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

4 Mar 2021, 17:16 GMT

Last source update

4 Mar 2021, 17:16 GMT

FTS notice number

2021/S 000-004384

Classification (CPV)

IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Delivery area

UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-029877 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons

Published justification

1. On 11 March 2020 the World Health Organisation declared a COVID-19 pandemic with the associated serious risk to life. The UK Government’s response to the national emergency posed by COVID-19 includes the putting in place by it of arrangements for large-scale testing in respect of COVID-19 on an urgent basis. 2. As part of those arrangements, DHSC needs to acquire products in order to implement the large-scale antigen testing programme necessary to build a profile of the spread of COVID-19 and to prevent further loss of human life and to allow the population to return to work safely. A part of its procurement strategy is the procurement of technology which enables citizens to test themselves using lateral flow devices and report results to Test and Trace without professional assistance. 3. DHSC is satisfied that the tests permitting use of the Negotiated procedure without prior publication (Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii)) are met because:A. The works, supplies or services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator as competition is absent for technical reasons: The proof of concept work being carried out by the supplier is to demonstrate, refine and retrain specialist software and algorithms which are protected by IPRs held solely by the supplier. No other supplier is capable of providing the same software, technology and algorithm in the short time frames required for the pilot phase of the proof of concept which is a pre-condition to the roll out of the technology to NHS professionals and in time the general public. B. No reasonable alternative or substitute exists: There is no reasonable alternative operator who can provide the technology, software and algorithms to run the proof of concept and pilot the expanded testing capabilities without interruption at this stage. The imperative of innovation and the need to rapidly expand the scope and capacity of testing services is critical to England’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the significant benefits of successful containment of the spread of the virus is self-evident. If DHSC is unable to continue with its investigations into innovative solutions that could rapidly increase testing capacity and speeds, this may have a catastrophic impact on its strategy and could result in further spreading of the virus due to difficulties in testing and isolating those who have tested positive. C. The absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement: 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.

• Sensyne Health Group LimitedAwarded supplier11240986 Schrödinger Building Heatley Road, Oxford Science Park, Oxford, UK, OX4 4GE

No document links were published on the notice.