Patent ID: 8231749

Claim:
An apparatus for application of a patient-specific label to a pre-filled drug container comprising: a printing apparatus including a label applicator; a container positioner configured to position the pre-filled drug container, the container having a first sidewall portion, a second sidewall portion and a first label covering the first sidewall portion, the first label representative of the container contents; a controller coupled to the printing apparatus and the container positioner, the controller configured to control the printing apparatus to print patient-specific information on a second label to create the patient-specific label, to control the container positioner to orient the container relative to the label applicator such that the second sidewall portion of the container faces the label applicator, and to control the label applicator to move the patient-specific label to attach the patient-specific label to the second sidewall portion of the container without obscuring the first label; and a database accessible by the controller, the database including, for each container, positioning information enabling the container positioner to move the container to the position to be contacted by the patient-specific label; wherein the controller comprises: instructions configured to operate the container positioner to move the container to be contacted by the patient-specific label; and instructions for utilizing a reference point associated with the container to orient the container relative to the label applicator to allow application of the patient-specific label to the container such that the first label is unobscured by the patient-specific label, wherein the reference point comprises a portion of the first label, and further wherein the positioning information includes rotation duration time information that provides the amount of time that a specific container must be rotated by the positioner such that the patient-specific label will be applied without obscuring the first label.