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COPAN Remembers Daniele Triva, Inventor of Flocked Swabs for Collection and Transfer of Biological Samples

October 31, 2020

In Memoriam

Daniele Triva, Founder of COPAN Group and inventor of flocked swabs

Daniele Triva

Founder & CEO of COPAN Group · Inventor of Flocked Swabs

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact around the globe. As it began to unfold, COPAN’s invention of flocked swabs took center stage worldwide, becoming the gold-standard tool for specimen collection in COVID-19 testing. These unique and highly sought-after swabs were invented in 2004 by the late Daniele Triva, COPAN Group’s inspiring CEO and Founder. Today, COPAN pauses to remember and honor its charismatic leader and inventor, whose 61st birthday would have been celebrated today.

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Daniele was a creative genius! He led and inspired everyone at COPAN. In addition to inventing flocked swabs, he also designed and built fully robotic lines to enable the mass production of many millions of flocked swabs. His invention revolutionized sample collection. Every employee at COPAN remembers Daniele’s kindness and is committed to carrying on his legacy of excellence. Flocked swabs continue playing a crucial role in this pandemic, and we understand the importance of our role.

Norman SharplesCEO, COPAN Diagnostics

Unlike traditional fiber swabs, COPAN Flocked Swabs (FLOQSwabs^®) have no internal mattress core to trap the specimen. The specialized swabs absorb and release more specimen. For respiratory diagnostics, flocked swabs are less invasive for the patient and yield results similar to the more intrusive historical benchmark: nasopharyngeal aspirates and nasal washes.

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Since the pandemic began, we have been working around the clock to supply as many flocked swabs and UTM^® viral transport medium as possible to hospitals and frontline healthcare professionals. But today, we pause to remember our dear Captain Daniele and his legacy of compassion, innovation, and his relentless drive to improve pre-analytics.

Norman SharplesCEO, COPAN Diagnostics

About COPAN

With a reputation for innovation, COPAN is the leading manufacturer of collection and transport systems in the world. COPAN’s collaborative approach to pre-analytics has resulted in Flocked Swabs, ESwab^®, UTM^® Universal Transport Medium, and laboratory automation including WASP^® and WASPLab^®. COPAN carries a range of microbial sampling products, inoculation loops, and pipettes. For more information, visit www.copanusa.com.

Learn More About Flocked Swabs

Explore the technology Daniele Triva pioneered.

Visit the FLOQSwabs® Product Page