Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) header
Date of this document:  10/4/2006

On September 12, 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) selected McKesson Specialty Distribution as the vaccine distributor of choice for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases’ (NCIRD) Vaccines for Children Program (VFC).

This is the first time that CDC will use a national, centralized approach for vaccine distribution. In the past, our grantees have used either a third party distributor on in house vaccine supply to provide vaccine to their health care providers. The selection of McKesson Specialty Distribution is also a significant milestone in meeting the goals of NCIRD’s Vaccine Management Business Improvement Project (VMBIP). Using a centralized distribution system will save time, ensure that vaccines arrive safely, enable the direct delivery of vaccines to providers, and allow CDC to respond more quickly and effectively to public health crises.

In anticipation of questions about this VMBIP milestone, we have created a list of
questions and answers for your use. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact your project officer. Thank you!

1. What is the period of performance and contract award for the National Centralized Distribution contract?
The contract was awarded for a base period of three years and two 12-month option periods, which may be exercised at the discretion of the Government.

2. What award criteria did CDC use to select the vendor?
Section M.8, Source Selection of the solicitation was used to make the source selection decision. This provision reads as follows:
“M. 8 Source Selection
Evaluation of the integrated proposal will follow a sequential order beginning with (1) Go/No-Go Requirement, (2) review of technical and business proposals,
(3) oral presentations, (4) final proposal revisions, (5) past performance, and (6) site visits. While each component is independently reviewed and evaluated, the final source selection(s) will be based on the offeror(s) whose integrated proposal
(Go/No-Go) Requirement, technical and business proposal, oral presentation, final proposal revisions, past performance, site visits) represents the best overall value to the Government. Cost/price is not expected to be the controlling factor in selection of the successful offeror(s). However, the degree of importance of the technical proposal and cost/price as a factor could become greater depending upon the degree of equality of the technical proposal and other factors evaluated. 
When competing proposals and other factors evaluated are determined to be substantially equal, cost/price would become a controlling factor. “

3. How many vendors applied for the National Centralized Distribution contract?
Three proposals were received.

4. How is the CDC guaranteeing quality customer service from the distributor?
There is an ongoing performance evaluation in the terms of the contract that will be used. One component is satisfactory customer service based on a survey of projects. In addition, customer satisfaction is an element that will be closely monitored by the VMBIP Evaluation team.

5. How can I find out more about this distributor and their related experience?
You can find more information on McKesson Specialty Distribution by visiting
www.mckessonspecialty.com.

6. Will I still need to draw down my existing inventory?
Yes, vaccine inventory draw down is an activity undertaken by all grantees, regardless of distributor. If you have questions about using the vaccine inventory draw down tool, please contact your project officer or VMBIP analyst.

7. When will the distributor begin shipment of vaccine?
Post award, McKesson will have 60 days to prepare for centralized distribution.
After this time the shipment of vaccine to the pilots is expected to occur.

8. Will the centralized distributor contractor be able to accept my existing inventory at my current vendor/depot?
The intent of the inventory transition plan is to ultimately push all vaccine out to providers instead of having a significant amount of vaccine remaining after the new distributor is on line. However, contingency plans are being developed for dealing with vaccine inventory that remains after go-live.

9. What are the feedback channels for my experiences with the selected distributor?
The CDC is planning to survey grantees and providers post centralized distribution to assess their satisfaction. The timeline for survey distribution is based on the Go Live/transition schedule. Grantees are encouraged to contact their project officer if they would like to report a positive or negative distributor experience. Please do not wait for the survey to provide feedback. Your ongoing feedback will help CDC evaluate customer satisfaction for the distributor’s ongoing performance evaluation. Also, as always, grantees should be communicating with their project officer.

10. What should I be doing/thinking about to prepare for my transition to centralized distribution?
If you are not scheduled to transition before the end of 2006, you can work with your project officer and VMBIP analyst to begin preparations. If you are already preparing for or have already started the transition process, continue to do so with your project officer and your VMBIP analyst.

This document can be found on the CDC website at:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vmbip/downloads/distributor-faq1.rtf