Universal Transport Medium (UTM) ^® is an FDA-cleared collection and transport system suitable for collection, transport, maintenance and long-term freeze storage of clinical specimens containing viruses, chlamydia, mycoplasma and ureaplasma organisms. The transport medium comes in a plastic, screw-cap tube and maintains organism viability for 48 hours at room or refrigerated temperature. UTM^® has been tested and validated in full compliance with CLSI M40-A2: Quality Control of Microbiological Transport System Standard. UTM^® has been used successfully for Rapid Antigen Testing, DFA, Viral Culture and for Molecular-Based Assays. The unique media formulation includes antibiotics to inhibit bacterial and fungal growth, without affecting viruses, chlamydia, mycoplasma or ureaplasma.

HealthLink UTM^®, which is distributed by Hardy Diagnostics, was developed and is manufactured by COPAN. COPAN (which stands for Collection and Preservation for Analysis) was founded in 1979 by the late Giorgio Triva in Mantua, Italy. Since its beginning, COPAN has focused on developing technological innovations in preanalytics. COPAN's vertically integrated approach to manufacturing allows complete control over the entire process, allowing consistent production of quality products. Today, COPAN supplies hundreds of millions of bacteriology transport swabs, transfer pipets, calibrated plastic inoculation loops, UTM^® viral transport systems and Flocked Swabs worldwide.

"We're incredibly proud to be able to offer the full line of HealthLink UTM^® products to our customers," says Christopher Catani, Vice President and Director of Sales and Marketing at Hardy. "COPAN is an excellent partner and we expect high demand for these products because of the aggressive flu season predicted by the CDC."