Patent ID: 7882680

Claim:
A method for dispensing solid pharmaceutical products to a product package having a plurality of cavities comprising the steps of: providing a template having a plurality of cavities corresponding to a plurality of product package cavities; providing a temporary storage member having a plurality of cavities corresponding to a plurality of product package cavities; selectively dispensing one or more solid pharmaceutical products from a plurality of different drug sources into a passageway which transmits one or more solid pharmaceutical products from the plurality of different drug sources into each of said plurality of template cavities; substantially simultaneously transferring the solid pharmaceutical products from said plurality of template cavities to said plurality of temporary storage member cavities; and transferring the solid pharmaceutical products from said plurality of temporary storage member cavities to a further array of cavity locations, wherein the pharmaceuticals are transferred substantially simultaneously from a plurality of template cavities into a corresponding plurality of temporary storage member cavities which are located beneath the template; and further wherein cavities of the template are being filled while the pharmaceuticals located in the further array of cavity locations are being transferred for further automated processing.