The company has supported the only federally-funded research and development center focused on medical research for 15 years, but a challenger has wrestled the contract away. Leidos is battling for a second chance at keeping a long-term contract worth up to $89 billion over 25 years to support the National Cancer Center.
The contract dates to the old Science Applications International Corp., which first won the contract in 2008 to manage the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. Leidos inherited the contract after the 2013 split of “Old SAIC.”
Since 2008, the National Institutes of Health has obligated approximately $6 billion in task orders.
NIH awarded the recompete contract in January to the Alliance for Advancing Biomedical Research, a group created by the University of California system. AABR was the only other bidder besides Leidos, according to Federal Procurement Data System records.
Leidos is challenging now the agency conducted discussions and evaluated technical proposals, cost and past performance. Leidos is also arguing that NIH’s best-value tradeoff decision was flawed.
The Government Accountability Office is due to make a decision by July 3.
The Frederick lab is a federally-funded research and development center and the only one focused on medical research.
Research at the Frederick lab involves cancer, AIDS/HIV, infectious diseases, biomedical imaging, data science, genetics, pathology and virology.
Work there supports the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and other parts of NIH.
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