Patent ID: 8678231

Claim:
A medicine dispensing device comprising: a device body having a front face; and a medicine conveyance member that conveys medicines arranged in a plurality of lines in the device body one by one, wherein the medicine conveyance member includes a medicine holding member movable in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, the medicine holding member including: a support member; a frontward-rearward moving member that is supported by the support member and that reciprocatingly moves in a frontward-rearward direction normal to the front face of the device body; and a clamping member including a pair of clamp pieces that are supported by the frontward-rearward moving member to pivot between a vertical position and a horizontal position and that are capable of clamping one of said medicines, wherein the medicines are stored in each of a plurality of cassettes juxtaposed in the device body, the cassette comprising: a pusher that urges the stored medicines to a removal side of the cassette; and a moving support portion operatively coupled with the cassette, the moving support portion abutting the stored medicines and being reciprocatingly movable, and wherein the clamping member further includes: a pivotal plate that supports the clamp pieces to move close to or away from one another and to be pivotable; and a urging means that urges the pivotal plate to the vertical position, wherein the pivotal plate includes a pressure receptor portion that, when moving down the clamping member, abuts a compression portion formed in the device body to thereby cause the clamping member to rotate to the horizontal position against an urging force exerted by the urging means.