Identification of Biomarkers of Radiation Exposure in Radon Cohorts

Solicitation Number: 1000207352

1. The Purpose and Explanation of an ACAN

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows Health Canada to post a notice for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that a goods, services or construction contract will be awarded to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the minimum requirements identified in the ACAN, the Contracting Authority may then proceed to award a contract to the pre-identified contractor.

2. Rights of Suppliers

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services or goods described in this ACAN may submit a Statement of Capabilities demonstrating how they meet the advertised requirement. This Statement of Capabilities must be provided via e-mail only to the contact person identified in Section 12 of the Notice on or before the closing date and time of the Notice. If the Bidder can clearly demonstrate they possess the required capabilities, the requirement will be opened to electronic or traditional bidding processes.

3. Proposed Contractor

Atlantic Path, Dalhousie University, 1494 Carlton Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3B7

4. Definition of Requirements or Expected Results

The National Radon Program under the Radiation Health Assessment Division has a mandate to provide Canadians with evidence-based guidance to support the optimal application of radiation protection practices.The objective of this HC Research Ethics Board approved project (HC REB 2017-0026) will be to conduct a pilot study investigating the biological effects in high radon exposed individuals that would provide insights into the mechanistic pathways that cause radon induced lung cancer. The Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (Atlantic PATH) is part of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow's Project (CPTP) which is the largest longitudinal study of its kind ever undertaken in Canada following the health of 300,000 people for 30 years in the Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and in Atlantic Canada. This national study is investigating how genetics, environment, lifestyle, and behavior contribute to the development of chronic disease. Atlantic PATH is a regional cohort of CPTP with more than 30,000 participants from all four Atlantic Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. This ancillary study will invite participants from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador based on identifying geographic areas of high radon potential through spatial analysis using indoor residential radon data. It should be noted that New Brunswick, in particular is one of the highest radon prone areas in the country. For instance, based on the Cross Canada Residential survey, approximately 25% of the homes tested in New Brunswick have radon levels above the national guideline. This presents a good opportunity to find participants who had chronic exposure to indoor radon levels as compared to the other cohorts within the CPTP and hence strengthening the design of this pilot study. This study will be the first of its kind undertaken where a series of biological endpoints will be examined in individuals exposed to indoor residential radon levels. Data generated from this work will provide new knowledge on chronic low dose exposure to radon and radon progeny that will be shared with the scientific community, as well as providing the foundation for expanding to other CPTP cohorts.

The objective of this contract is to conduct a pilot radon biomarker identification study with Atlantic PATH under the HC-REB-2017-0026 approved study protocol. The purpose of the pilot project will be to gauge the potential for new and existing technologies to identify biomarkers of chronic exposure to indoor radon levels

Health Canada needs the services of the Contractor (Atlantic PATH) to fulfill the following research objectives:

1. Engage and contact 2701 participants from the Atlantic PATH cohort to seek interest for recruitment in the radon biomarker study.
2. Provide access to health data from baseline and follow-up questionnaires to identify study participants within a pre-determined age group, without confounding traits/habits in order to meet the inclusion/exclusion criteria.
3. Provide access to stored blood samples for participants that meet the inclusion/exclusion criteria (n=252).

   This pilot study will provide the opportunity to test new “omics” technology along with various statistical modelling approaches to identify valid biomarkers that will help in generating new knowledge about the biological effects from radon exposure. The information generated from the study will contribute to the body of evidence under consideration by the scientific organizations like UNSCEAR, ICRP, and OECD that are responsible for the international radiation protection framework.

   5. Minimum Requirements

   Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a Statement of Capabilities that it meets the following minimum requirements:

1. Supplier must have custody of an active, longitudinal study cohort of at least 2000 participants, with the following characteristics:
   1. Cohort participants have given written consent for personal information and biological samples to be shared for research purposes, in accordance with the supplier’s data sharing and privacy policies;
   2. Cohort participants must be between the ages of 40 and 80 years;
   3. Cohort participants must live in an area with high radon potential “(i.e. either more than 10% of indoor radon measurements collected in the area exceed 200 Bq/m3, or the area is characterized with surficial uranium concentrations greater than 1.5 eU).”
   4. Cohort participants must have already provided the supplier with information on their health status, lifestyle, and habits, and this information must be available to researchers, in accordance with the suppliers data sharing and privacy policies
   5. Cohort participants must have agreed in writing to be followed for at least 30 years
   6. Cohort participants must have agreed in writing to be re-contacted for follow-up and ancillary studies.
2. Supplier must have at least 10 years of experience in managing/hosting this longitudinal health study cohort.
3. Supplier must have the capacity to re-contact participants identified in item 1, recruit them for Health Canada’s study, and coordinate any additional data collection.
4. Supplier must maintain a bank of biological samples from the cohort participants identified in item 1 and/or be able to collect fresh samples from study participants, and must be able to grant access to these samples to Health Canada researchers, in accordance with the supplier’s data sharing and privacy policies.

   6. Reason for Non-Competitive Award

   Section 6 of the Government Contracts Regulations contains four exceptions that permit the contracting authority to set aside the requirement to solicit bids. For the proposed procurement, the following exception applies:

   (d) Only One Person or Firm is capable of performing the contract.

   7. Applicable trade Agreements and Justification for Limited Tendering or the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business

   There are no Trade Agreements applicable to this contract.

   8. Ownership of Intellectual Property

   Contractor will own the IP

   9. Period of the Proposed Contract

   The contract period shall be from date of contract award until March 31^st, 2021.

   10. Estimated Value of the Proposed Contract

   The estimated value of the proposed contract is $73,248.00.

   11. Closing Date and Time

   The Closing Date and Time for accepting Statements of Capabilities is April 9^th, 2019, 2PM EST.

   12. Contact Person

   All enquiries must be addressed by e-mail to:

   Name: Cathy Jones
   E-Mail: cathy.jones@canada.ca