Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2022-01-26
Buyer: Indivumed GmbH
Country: DE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 73000000 | 73100000 | 73111000 | 73200000 | 73300000
Submission deadline: 2022-02-21
Award criteria: The most economic tender
EU fund: ERDF

Technical requirements: Indivumed, founded in 2001 and operational since 2002, is an internationally oriented biotechnology company in the field of "digital health" and personalized oncology with headquarters in Hamburg. Indivumed employs approximately 240 people worldwide, of which approximately 190 are based in Hamburg.
Indivumed's goal is to decipher cancer diseases in order to develop new active agents and diagnostic procedures for targeted ("personalized") cancer therapy. In this respect, Indivumed is fundamentally different from other biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies, as it has a unique development platform that has been systematically built up over the past 15 years. Thanks to the rapid development of cost-effective and highly sensitive tissue analysis methods in combination with complex computer technologies (cloud solutions) and data analysis methods (e.g. artificial intelligence), Indivumed is now able to use its existing sample bank and clinical network for AI-assisted drug development.
This project will generate a unique platform for rapid and efficient therapeutic target discovery with an aim to driving therapeutic development programs. This platform combines Indivumed's established clinical network, AI-driven oncology analytics, and state-of-the-art disease models for therapeutic target validation to develop new drugs in the shortest possible time.
Cryopreserved tissue samples from up to 10 selected entities (CRC, NSCLC, breast cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, ovary cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer) will be provided as source material for complex cellular model generation. These cohorts will be extended with up to 3 types of tissue that have been neoadjuvantly treated. Optimized protocols, complex media and matrix compositions for the needs of each entity should be considered to achieve the highest success ratio for cellular model generation.
After generation of the patient derived models, siRNA/shRNA mediated reduction of specific (yet to be defined) gene targets is planned. Experimental set-up should be designed to deal with multiple targets in several disease models in parallel, including appropriate controls and phenotypic readouts.
Regarding the legal aspects, Indivumed requires full and unrestricted scientific and commercial freedom to operate with regard to all generated organoids and results of their respective genetic manipulation, including to their licensing and/or sale to third parties. The applicant should provide overview about own patents or possibly touched patents of other companies.
Further explanations of the points mentioned there are described in detail in the specifications. The specifications and further procurement documents (also the contract) will be issued after the conclusion of the prior competition, but only if the applicant has submitted the Non-Disclosure Agreement (see Application Forms) with his/her application.
After verification of the information and documents to be submitted in accordance with section III.1.1 regarding grounds for exclusion and professional competence (declarations PL1 to PL3), and after determination of the economic capacity in accordance with section III.1.2 (declarations WL1 and WL2), only the technical and professional capacity shall be decisive for the evaluation of the suitability. This will be assessed exclusively on the basis of the references (TL2) to be submitted in accordance with section III.1.3 of this announcement, provided that the minimum requirements are met. A maximum total of 1,000 points can be achieved here.
The assessment of ability and expertise is based on a relative comparison of the applicants on the basis of the following grading scale. Per statement/evidence are multiplied by the respective weighting factor achieved. The scores determined in this way are then added together.
- 100 % = very good: Applicant is well above average with regard to the suitability criterion in view of the field of applicants,
- 80 % = good: Applicant is well above average in terms of the suitability criterion with regard to the field of applicants,
- 60 % = fully satisfactory: Applicant is in the upper average range with regard to the suitability criterion in view of the field of applicants,
- 40 % = satisfactory: applicant is in the lower average range with regard to the suitability criterion,
- 20 % = sufficient: Applicant is only below average with regard to the suitability criterion in view of the field of applicants.
In the range between 0% and 100%, intermediate values (10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%) can be formed to take into account a tendency towards the higher grade level in each case, which are assigned textually to the respective grade level with the even percentage number below. An evaluation of the references (TL2) with 0% would correspond to a complete non-fulfillment of the respective suitability criterion, which would result in the exclusion of the application.

Eligibility requirements: Documents submitted must still be valid; where up-to-date requirements are made, the date refers to the date of publication of this notice (see section VI.5). Applicants must submit the following documents or documents with their application: PL1. Self-declaration regarding exclusion criteria (sec. 123, 124 GWB). The form in the application documents shall be used. PL2. A short description of the company historical background, describing experiences with projects similar to those presented here (self-declaration, see checklist in application documents). PL3. Self-declaration of the existence of liability insurance customary in the industry or declaration that such insurance will be concluded in the event of a contract being awarded. The form in the application documents shall be used. In the case of candidate consortia, the requirements PL1 and PL2 set out here apply accordingly to each individual member of the candidate consortia. Indivumed reserves the right to request further self-declarations and certificates for bidders selected at the end of the competition and any subcontractors with the submission of the tender separate request.