Solicitation
Methylphenidate ER
Department of Defense · Defense Logistics Agency
AI summaryDLA Troop Support (Defense Logistics Agency) wants one national supplier of methylphenidate extended-release tablets in four strengths, in 100-count bottles. Customers are Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service and Bureau of Prisons sites, served through drug distributors called prime vendors (PPV). It is a firm-fixed-price (FFP) requirements contract: one set price per bottle, orders only as needed, one base year plus four option years. SAM.gov shows a response due date of November 6, 2026, 3:00 PM Eastern, but the attached solicitation says October 23, 2026 (passed); two attached amendments were not read. More in the summary
AI summary Beta
This summary may miss requirements: 2 of 3 attachments weren't read (amendment1.pdf, amendment2.pdf). Check the attachments on SAM.gov.
DLA Troop Support (Defense Logistics Agency) wants one national supplier of methylphenidate extended-release tablets in four strengths, in 100-count bottles. Customers are Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service and Bureau of Prisons sites, served through drug distributors called prime vendors (PPV). It is a firm-fixed-price (FFP) requirements contract: one set price per bottle, orders only as needed, one base year plus four option years. SAM.gov shows a response due date of November 6, 2026, 3:00 PM Eastern, but the attached solicitation says October 23, 2026 (passed); two attached amendments were not read.
Who can bid (8)
- Open to all responsible sources: unrestricted, no set-aside
- Be registered in DIBBS before submitting an offer, and hold an active System for Award Management (SAM) registration
- Hold an FDA-approved New Drug Application, abbreviated application or biologic license for each offered item, approved by the time the solicitation closes
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- Offer FDA-approved products rated 'A' for therapeutic equivalence (unless every drug in the family is rated 'B')
- All manufacturing, packaging and packing sites must meet FDA current Good Manufacturing Practices before award and must not be under an FDA Warning Letter that makes the offer unacceptable
- Dealers and suppliers need a manufacturer's Letter of Commitment guaranteeing an uninterrupted source of supply for the contract period; manufacturers send a Letter of Certification
- Have your own eleven-digit National Drug Code (NDC) for each product
- Large businesses must send a small business subcontracting plan with the offer
How to submit: Upload through the DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS), https://www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil/; email, fax, mail and hand delivery are not authorized. What to include is under Full summary below. Check the solicitation's instructions on SAM.gov.
Things to watch (15)
From the version posted Oct 21, 2026.
- Serious: FDA drug approval must be in hand by closing. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a New Drug Application (NDA, for a brand drug) or an Abbreviated NDA (ANDA, for a generic) must exist when the solicitation closes. A pending application is technically unacceptable, even if approved before award.
- Serious: Manufacturer letter needed or the offer is unacceptable. A dealer or distributor needs a signed letter from the manufacturer on its letterhead assuring uninterrupted supply for the whole contract term. Manufacturers send a letter of certification.
- Serious: FDA warning letters or manufacturing problems can knock out an offer. Every plant, packager and labeler must meet current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP, the FDA's drug-making rules) before award. A Warning Letter on a relevant facility or product may make the offer unacceptable.
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- Worth checking: Two amendments attached but not read. Amendment 1 and Amendment 2 are attached to the notice but were not read, and about 7,600 characters from the middle of the solicitation were left out. They may change dates, prices or instructions; read them on SAM.gov before bidding.
- Worth checking: Must sign agreements with each prime vendor; paid by them, not the Government. Payment comes from the prime vendors under your own business agreements, you cannot assign the right to be paid, and the Government stays out of disputes with them.
- Worth checking: 15-day delivery and backorder penalty. A late complete order is a backorder. If you cause it, the Government can buy elsewhere and bill you for the extra cost within 30 calendar days, and may still terminate for cause.
- Worth checking: Quantities are estimates only. The Government does not promise to buy any quantity, and a requirements contract gives no price adjustment if orders fall short of the estimates.
- Worth checking: Reverse auction may set final prices. The contracting officer may run a reverse auction (online bidding rounds) for price discussions. Offerors must agree to take part, and prices may be shown anonymously to other offerors.
- Worth checking: Government may pay the distributor less than your unit price. The prime vendors' contracts carry negative distribution fees, so the price they pay can be below your contract unit price. Price with that in mind.
- Worth checking: Offers only through DIBBS. Register in the DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS) first. Upload problems are not an acceptable reason for a late offer.
- Worth checking: Veterans pricing rules and pricing history required. Offers must follow the Department of Veterans Affairs Federal Ceiling Price policy, and you must list 2025 and 2026 commercial, Federal Supply Schedule and ceiling prices for each line.
- Minor: Country of origin disclosure. You must list the country of origin of each end product and of each active ingredient, and the Government may ask for more detail on how items are made.
- Minor: 0.5 percent cost recovery fee and quarterly sales reports. Build the fee into every line price, report sales each quarter even with no sales, and pay within 60 calendar days after the quarter. Late payment becomes a debt to the Government.
- Minor: Price instructions mention only line 0001. Some price instructions name only line item 0001, but the quantity text asks for prices on all four lines. Price all four unless the contracting officer says otherwise.
- Minor: Large businesses need a subcontracting plan. Only large businesses must send a subcontracting plan with the offer. Small businesses do not.
Read from the notice and 1 attachment. 2 of 3 not read. Show which files.
- Methylphenidate ER Solicitation final.pdf (read)
- amendment1.pdf: not summarized: open it on SAM.gov
- amendment2.pdf: not summarized: open it on SAM.gov
Full summary
What they want
- Supply methylphenidate ER tablets in 100-count bottles (BTL), estimated per year: 18 MG 25,988 BTL, 36 MG 35,111 BTL, 54 MG 18,708 BTL, 27 MG 25,512 BTL (contract line items 0001 to 0004, priced for the base year and each option year; quantities are estimates only)
- Sell through the DLA and VA prime vendors (AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, DMS Pharmaceutical Group, McKesson) under business agreements with each one
- Be ready to fill orders 45 calendar days after award; prices take effect 15 days after that, and no later than 60 calendar days after award
- Deliver each complete order to the prime vendors within 15 calendar days after receipt of order; report a backorder to the contracting officer within 4 calendar days
- Pack in child-resistant, non-glass bottles (at least 100cc) that work in automated dispensing units, with bar code labels (NDC, lot number, expiration date)
- Register the products with RxNorm, First Data Bank and Medi-Span; send product information to First Data Bank, Medispan and Multum within 5 days after award
- Send quarterly sales reports and pay a 0.5 percent cost recovery fee within 60 calendar days after each quarter
- Report recalls, FDA warning letters and manufacturing-site changes to the contracting officer
- Contract type
- Firm-fixed-price (FFP) requirements contract; commercial item (FAR Part 12); national contract filled through prime vendors
- Period of performance
- 1 base year + four 1-year options; total not to exceed five years
- Estimated value
- Not stated
- How they'll choose
- Lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA): the offer with the lowest total evaluated price among those rated acceptable on both non-price factors. A reverse auction (bidding rounds where lowest prices show anonymously) may be used.
- Offers due
- November 6, 2026, 3:00 PM Eastern
- How to submit
- Upload through the DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS), https://www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil/; email, fax, mail and hand delivery are not authorized
What they'll judge offers on
- Technical Requirements (acceptable or unacceptable): complies with all terms of the Statement of Work and solicitation and sends all requested documents
- Past Performance (acceptable or unacceptable): recent, relevant work from the last three years plus any FDA warning letters or failed inspections; no record counts as acceptable
- Price: lowest evaluated aggregate price, found by multiplying each line's estimated quantity, options included, by the offered unit price and adding the lines
What to include when you submit
- Upload one electronic copy of Volume 1 (Non-Price Proposal) and Volume 2 (Price Proposal) in DIBBS before the response due date; do not select submit until all documents are added, since documents can be added but not removed
- Volume 1, Tab A: the SF 1449 (Standard Form 1449, the form you sign and return as your offer), completed, signed and dated, with all solicitation pages 1 through 63
- Volume 1, Tab B: Trade Agreements chart with the country of origin of each end product and of each active pharmaceutical ingredient (API); also complete the place of performance form and the Tablets, Capsules and Pills chart (FAR 52.215-6)
- Volume 1, Tab C: completed representations and certifications, or use the ones in SAM.gov
- Volume 1, Tab D: small business subcontracting plan, from large businesses only
- Volume 1, Tab E: manufacturers send a Letter of Certification, others send a Letter of Commitment from the manufacturer; both on the manufacturer's letterhead, dated, naming the solicitation number and product, giving the country of origin of end products and APIs, and signed by an officer
- Volume 1, Tab F: names, titles and contact details of authorized negotiators and points of contact, on signed and dated company letterhead
- Volume 1, Tab G: FDA violation and failed inspection disclosure, covering the last three years before the solicitation for the listed facilities and the scheduled items, or a signed statement that none apply
- Volume 1 has more required items (the text names sections a. through h.); the rest of the list is in text that was left out
- Volume 2: unit price per bottle in U.S. dollars for each line, base year and all four option years, with the 0.5 percent cost recovery fee included and Federal Excise Tax excluded
- Give a separate eleven-digit National Drug Code (NDC) for each product, with the first five digits identifying your firm
- Give 2025 and 2026 commercial list prices, Federal Supply Schedule prices and Federal Ceiling Prices for each line, as the pricing data provision asks
- Prices stay firm for 90 calendar days; do not add annual reports, brochures or catalogs
After award, you must have
- Reach business-to-business agreements with each DLA and VA prime vendor; tell the contracting officer within 15 days of receiving award if any cannot be reached From Methylphenidate ER Solicitation final.pdf:
…agreements with each of the DLA and VA PPV contractors.
- Be ready to fill orders 45 calendar days after award From Methylphenidate ER Solicitation final.pdf:
The contract performance date shall be 45 calendar days (or sooner upon mutual agreement)
- Register products with RxNorm, First Data Bank and Medi-Span before performance starts, and submit product information 5 days after award From Methylphenidate ER Solicitation final.pdf:
…to First Data Bank, Medispan and Multum 5 DAYS after award.
Not in the notice text
- Amendment 1 and Amendment 2 are attached on SAM.gov but were scanned images and not read; about 7,600 characters from the middle of the solicitation PDF (the rest of Volume 1's required documents and the start of the price proposal rules) were also left out. They may change dates, prices or instructions.
- Which response due date applies: November 6, 2026 on SAM.gov or October 23, 2026 in the solicitation
- Page limits for the proposal are not seen in the text read
- No dollar estimate for the contract is given, only bottle quantities per year
- The notice leaves the place of performance blank; offerors list their manufacturing, packaging and packing sites, and delivery goes to the prime vendors' distribution centers
- The notice text still says the solicitation is planned and a projected date of September 2026, while SAM.gov lists it as a solicitation first posted September 23, 2026
Eligibility and how to respond
- No set-aside: any business, large or small, can bid unless the notice says otherwise.
- How to submit, from the AI summary: Upload through the DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS), https://www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil/; email, fax, mail and hand delivery are not authorized. Check it in the notice before you send anything.
Notice details
- Posted
- Oct 21, 2026
- Notice type
- Solicitation
- Office
- DLA Troop Support, Philadelphia, PA
- Product/service code
- 6505 · Drugs and Biologicals
- Business type
- Medical & healthcare (FedReady's grouping, from NAICS 325412)
- Versions
2 versions have been posted, newest first.
- Oct 21, 2026 · Amendment 0001 (this version)Due Nov 6, 2026 (changed)
- Sep 23, 2026 · SolicitationDue Oct 23, 2026
- Attachments
Past awards and competition
Who has won work like this before, the likely incumbent, and what similar contracts paid, from USAspending.gov.
Before you respond
- How to respond to a solicitation (8 steps)
- How to read a government solicitation
- How to price a government contract
Terms on this notice: Solicitation
Full notice text from SAM.gov
The Defense Logistics Agency is planning to issue a solicitation for a national requirements contract for Methylphenidate ER Tablets. Procurement details follow. Methylphenidate ER 18MG, 27MG, 36MG, and 54MG Tablets in 100 count bottles. This will be an unrestricted and fully competitive acquisition. The contract will be a firm-fixed price, requirements type contract with a one-year base and four one-year options. A contract resulting from this solicitation will establish a national supply source, in accordance with FAR 52.216-21 (Requirements), to provide the items listed in the schedule for purchase by Department of War, Department of Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service and Bureau of Prisons customers through the DLA and VA prime vendor programs. The annual usage estimates will be provided in the Schedule of Supplies section of the solicitation. This is a commercial item and will be solicited using FAR part 12. All sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered by the agency. A copy of the solicitation will be posted to the DLA Bid Board System (DIBBS) at https://www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil and Sam.Gov at https://sam.gov. Interested parties should contact Jeremy Brown at (445) 737-5419, (jeremy.brown@dla.mil) for any questions/comments. Interested parties are further advised to set up automated notifications of pre-solicitation or solicitation changes through this website. The current projected solicitation date is September of 2026. DLA reserves the right to issue the solicitation before or after the projected solicitation date.
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