The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), through the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Preparedness Consortium (BioMaP-Consortium), has released Request for Project Proposals (RPP) 26-12-VMI, “Ensuring American Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Resilience through Vendor Managed Inventory Capabilities for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Used in Medical Countermeasure Finished Dose Form Drug Products.”
Issued by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response’s (ASPR) Center for Industrial Base Management and Supply Chain (IBMSC), this solicitation seeks vendor-managed inventory (VMI) capabilities to support a strategic reserve of selected active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The scope includes procurement, cGMP storage, testing, inventory management, rotation and replenishment, conversion into finished dose form (FDF) drug products, and distribution when directed by the U.S. government. The effort supports the broader goal of strengthening domestic medical countermeasure readiness and pharmaceutical supply chain resilience.
Technical Objectives and Capability Areas
RPP 26-12-VMI is structured around three interlocking objectives that together define an end-to-end VMI capability:
- Objective 1: Establish VMI capabilities for U.S. government-selected APIs. Offerors must stand up secure, cGMP-compliant warehousing for qualified APIs sourced from FDA-inspected suppliers with Drug Master Files on record. Requirements include acceptance testing and retesting, ambient and cold-chain storage, controlled-substance storage, environmental monitoring, and auditable inventory controls.
- Objective 2: Perform VMI. The selected performer/s will need to manage real-time inventory across ambient, refrigerated, frozen, and controlled-substance storage categories. The requirement calls for batch and lot traceability, expiry-based picking, automated receipt and quarantine workflows, daily inventory reporting available to ASPR, and inventory-system availability greater than 99.9 percent.
- Objective 3: Support conversion, distribution, and rotation and replenishment. Offerors must show how qualified APIs can be converted into FDF drug products within 10 days of notice to meet emergent demand. They must also demonstrate the ability to distribute at ASPR’s direction to more than 2,000 U.S. health systems and territories, while maintaining a plan to procure, manage, rotate, and replenish a three-to-six-month supply of selected APIs over a minimum 60-month storage horizon.
The requirements are extensive. Respondents must address cGMP operations, DEA-compliant storage for scheduled substances, analytical testing, validated warehouse and inventory systems, physical and cyber security, and disaster recovery.
This is also not a storage-only requirement. The RPP calls for qualified inventory that can be tracked, tested, rotated, replenished, converted, and delivered at scale when needed. Attachment A includes a detailed API storage schedule illustrating the expected footprint, handling needs, and regulatory complexity across the reserve.
Program and Solicitation Overview
This RPP is issued under BARDA’s Other Transaction Agreement with Advanced Technology International (ATI), which serves as the Consortium Management Firm for BioMaP-Consortium under OTA Number 75A50123D00003.
Offerors must be members of the BioMaP-Consortium prior to award. The government anticipates making multiple awards and reserves the right to award only a subset of the requirement to any given performer if an optimal end-to-end team is not identified.
Given the scope spanning cGMP pharmaceutical operations; DEA-compliant secure storage; analytical chemistry; warehouse management systems; and distribution logistics, BARDA is explicit that this program favors multi-disciplinary teams. Successful offerors will likely need to assemble a consortium bringing together pharmaceutical manufacturing, cold-chain and controlled-substance logistics, regulatory/quality, and IT/cybersecurity expertise, along with established finished dose form manufacturing partnerships (or evidence of one, if teaming). Performers must also plan for a not-to-exceed 60-month period of performance beginning in Q4 CY2026, with initial capabilities (including initial API purchase, quality system updates, and standup of ambient, cold, and DEA vault storage) expected within 60 days of award.
Proposals are evaluated against three factors:
- Technical Approach/Solution
- Relevant Experience
- Cost/Price (Rough Order of Magnitude estimate)
Evaluations will use adjectival ratings from Outstanding to Unacceptable. Proposers who are rated Acceptable – or higher – and are not immediately funded may be held in the Consortium’s electronic “basket” for up to two years, remaining eligible for award as funding becomes available.
Key Dates & Submission Timeline
- August 11, 2026: RPP released
- August 18, 2026: Virtual Teaming Speed Networking Event
- August 20, 2026, 1:00 PM ET: Deadline to submit questions to [email protected]
- September 14, 2026, 1:00 PM ET: Full technical and cost proposals due via ATI’s Acquisition Management Platform (AMP)
Offerors should note this is a full-proposal solicitation (no white paper stage is required) and all submissions must be made through AMP; no exceptions will be made for submission issues, including system-to-system interface errors.
Funding Overview
BARDA has not published a specific funding ceiling for this RPP; award amounts remain contingent on the availability of federal funds, and the government anticipates making multiple awards across the requirement. Cost sharing is not required but is a favorable consideration in the evaluation, and offerors proposing it must detail the contribution type, valuation methodology, and dollar amount by cost-share item. Given the capital intensity of the required infrastructure (secure warehousing, cold chain, DEA vaults, and validated laboratory and IT systems) offerors should expect the government to scrutinize cost realism closely, particularly the consistency between the technical approach and the proposed Rough Order of Magnitude estimate.
Building the Nation's Pharmaceutical Safety Net
This RPP represents one of the more operationally ambitious efforts to emerge from the BioMaP-Consortium to date less a research and development program than a call to build durable, always-on industrial infrastructure that can protect the country’s access to essential medicines when the next public health emergency arrives. For companies with cGMP warehousing, controlled-substance logistics, analytical testing, or FDF manufacturing capabilities, this solicitation offers a rare opportunity to become part of the nation’s permanent pharmaceutical supply chain resilience architecture with a 60-month runway to prove it.
EverGlade is a national advisory firm helping innovators navigate opportunities like RPP 26-12-VMI from BioMaP-Consortium membership and teaming strategy to full technical and cost proposal development to program execution.
For additional information on where your capabilities could plug into this initiative, schedule a conversation with our team.
