JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Washington (Dec. 8, 2020) -- The 902nd Contracting Battalion’s 626th Contracting Team is conducting contract administrative services and oversight for the establishment and sustainment of 23 clinical expansion sites in support of Operation Warp Speed.
Operation Warp Speed is a public-private partnership with a goal to deliver 300 million doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. The Department of Health and Human Services and Defense Department are partnered to work with private industry and other federal departments and agencies.
The contracting team has provided the primary administrative and quality assurance contracting support for the Janssen Pharmaceutical clinical facility expansion sites spread across 11 states since September 2020.
Sgt. 1st Class Vanessa Wills is the lead administrative contracting officer for the 625th CT along with fellow administrative contracting officer Maj. Travers Doane and Staff Sgt. Christopher West, the lead quality assurance specialist. They oversee the contract administration and quality assurance of the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program contractor DynCorp International’s rapid emplacement of expansion sites. The team ensures the contractor follows the contract terms and conditions in order to have a fully operational clinical expansion site, including oversight of the establishment of 29 trailers and its associated equipment necessary for trial administration, patient examination, vaccination and phlebotomy. Currently, 20 of the 23 sites are fully operational and supporting vaccination trials.
The 626th CT also provides quality assurance oversight for an AstraZeneca clinical expansion site located in Federal Way, Washington.
“Conducting quality assurance is critical to ensure the contractor has set up acceptable facilities for our pharmaceutical partners to conduct their clinical trials,” Doane stated. “Each of the clinical expansion sites has a unique layout, and the facilities must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as local state permitting and safety regulations.”
The team works with the onsite contracting officer representative who monitors the contractor's performance and identifies any nonconformance issues the contractor needs to correct.
“It is a privilege to be part of this historic undertaking and partnership between the governmental and pharmaceutical industry to provide a safe and effective vaccine to the American public,” Doane said.
The 626th CT will continue to provide oversight of the clinical sites’ daily sustainment operations until trials are complete.
About the MICC:
Headquartered at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the Mission and Installation Contracting Command consists of about 1,500 military and civilian members who are responsible for contracting goods and services in support of Soldiers as well as readying trained contracting units for the operating force and contingency environment when called upon. As part of its mission, MICC contracts are vital in feeding more than 200,000 Soldiers every day, providing many daily base operations support services at installations, facilitate training in the preparation of more than 100,000 conventional force members annually, training more than 500,000 students each year, and maintaining more than 14.4 million acres of land and 170,000 structures.
Social Sharing