Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-03-22
Buyer: The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trusts
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 85150000: Medical imaging services
Estimated value: 376194.93 GBP

Technical requirements: 1) The Vectra Polaris enables whole slide brightfield, conventional fluorescent, 9 colour multispectral imaging (MSI) and 7 colour MOTiF scanning in 10x, 20x and 40x resolution.
2) Its the only system with a liquid crystal tunable-filter based spectral imaging system with selectable bandwidth.
3) Together with the inForm software it utilizes proprietary algorithms for data analysis that include spectrally unmixing tissue images using the unmixed images for analysis.
4) It is custom designed optics with optimized path for MSI allowing accurate spectral unmixing of 8 or more immunofluorescent probes along with a DAPI counterstain and autofluorescence for a multiplexed assay.
5) It uses proprietary MOTiF technology to produce rapid whole slide unmixed imagery up to 7 colours.
6) Its powerful MSI technology can separate 7 or more colours with autofluorescence removal 7.Its compatibility with existing biomarker panels, and (SOPs) and algorithms.
The Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, intends to procure one unit of Vectra Polaris Automated Digital Quantitative Pathology Imaging System from Akoya Biosciences Inc (Previously Perkin Elmer).
The contract for Vectra Polaris will be awarded to Akoya Biosciences Inc on a price of 376 194,93 GBP (ex VAT) each. This includes a fully comprehensive (Platinum) maintenance cover for a period of 4 year (1 + 4).
Vectra Polaris will be commissioned at “Centre for Molecular Pathology (CMP)”, situated at Sutton branch of The Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This VEAT Notice is being issued for a standstill period of ten (10) calendar days in line with 2014/24/EU.
Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the Official Journal of the European Union in the cases listed below:
The Royal Marsden Hospital has a rapidly expanding clinical trial portfolio in immunotherapy and together with the Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) has started to implement a profound translational immuno-oncology infrastructure with particular focus on translational histopathology and molecular pathology. For carrying out this implementation, one Molecular Pathologist Consultant has been appointed with expertise in fluorescent multiparametric Immunohistochemistry techniques (mIHC) and image analysis at the Centre for Molecular Pathology (CMP) in Sutton for the purpose.
In collaboration with the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) the Consultant has established different antibody marker panels, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and algorithms which allow monitoring and deconvolution of various immune cell types and their spatial relationship and interaction with cancer cells on Perkin Elmer’s Vectra 3.0 Automated Quantitative Pathology Imaging System. This fluorescent multispectral imaging technology enables identification and quantification of multiple spectrally overlapping markers without interference of autofluorescence through patented spectral unmixing algorithms. No other current multispectral imaging scanner offers comparable features.
The Vectra 3.0 is owned by ICR and made accessible to multiple research teams. It has exceeded capacity. In order to integrate this analysis efficiently and reliably into clinical trials and also ensure scalability the successor model Vectra Polaris provides the best solution.
Existing marker panels, SOPs and image analysis algorithms are compatible with this updated system and additionally it allows expansion of the marker panel size from 7 to 9, offers automated whole slide scanning and can be used as high performance brightfield scanner.
The Vectra Polaris will provide the prerequisite to accelerate the implementation of the BRC Royal Marsden research strategy to carry out the most innovative research for the benefit of patients and to keep its competitive edge and attract additional external funding.


Winner: Perkin Elmer Ltd
Award value: 376194.93