Patent ID: 7231920

Claim:
A medicament dispenser for use with a medicament carrier having a plurality of pockets for containing medicament wherein said pockets are spaced along the length of and defined between two peelable sheets secured to each other, said dispenser having an internal mechanism for accessing said medicament contained within said medicament carrier, said mechanism comprising, a) an opening station for receiving a pocket of said medicament carrier; b) peeling means positioned to engage a base sheet and a lid sheet of a pocket which has been received in said opening station for peeling apart such a base sheet and lid sheet, to open such a pocket, said peeling means including lid driving means for pulling apart a lid sheet and a base sheet of a pocket that has been received at said opening station; c) an outlet, positioned to be in communication with an opened pocket through which a user can remove medicament from such an opened pocket; and d) indexing means for indexing in communication with said outlet, pockets of a medicament carrier in use with said medicament dispenser, wherein said lid driving means comprises a wheel on which the lid sheet is wound up, said lid sheet wheel has an effective winding surface the diameter of which increases after every use of the diameter as it winds on more lid sheet, and that said lid driving means are operated by an electronic drive system which comprises means to limit the extent of rotation of said wheel, in order to control the length of medicament carrier peeled by said peeling means so that the medicament carrier is indexed by the same amount on each use of the dispenser.