Patent ID: 6859780

Claim:
A method of dispensing, tracking and managing pharmaceutical products utilizing prescribers, pharmacies, and a central computing station, comprising the steps of: a) forming a series of product cards by encoding on respective product cards information that identifies a particular pharmaceutical product; b) issuing the product cards to participating prescribers; c) activating the product cards after issuance to prescribers by the prescribers communicatively linking the product cards to the central computing station and wherein activation is established by the central computing station verifying the authenticity of the product cards, recording selected information encoded on the product cards in a database associated with the central computing station, and finally approving activation; d) transferring a respective activated product card from a prescriber to a patient; e) the patient in turn presenting the activated product card to a participating pharmacy; f) validating the activated product card at the pharmacy by the pharmacy communicatively linking the presented product card with the central computing station and verifying that the presented product card has in fact been activated; g) after validating the presented product card, the pharmacy then dispensing the approved pharmaceutical product to the patient; and h) accounting to the participating pharmacies for pharmaceutical product dispensed.