Tracking the distribution of prescription drugs and other controlled articles

• US 20020042762A1
• Filed: 08/30/2001
• Published: 04/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Data Detection Systems LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Data Detection Systems LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Inventors: DePalma, Michael J., McQuade, Richard, Chester, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 6,952,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring

Abstract

The disclosed system (System) was created to address many issues related the difficulty of maintaining control of pharmaceutical samples. By leveraging state of art technologies the System revolutionizes the way pharmaceutical companies disburse and track all samples to both the pharmaceutical sales representative and the licensed practitioner. With the advent of handheld computing and wireless technologies, the system process also leverages inventory management and bar code scanning, thus creating an overall process that addresses many needs.

Claims

1. A method for tracking the distribution of controlled articles from a central inventory by means of electronic communication and data collection, comprising:

a) receiving in a system server, a distribution request from a remote distributing representative for distribution of a packet of articles to a distributed, the request comprising a representative identifier, a distributee identifier, and a statement describing the contents of the packet of articles being distributed from a local inventory associated with the distributing representative;

b) confirming the authority of the distributing representative to distribute the packet;

c) confirming the authority of the distributes to receive the packet;

d) evaluating the distribution request for propriety;

e) transmitting an authorization code to the distributing representative; and

f) deleting a description of the packet'"'"'s contents from the local inventory and the central inventory.

2. A method of claim 1 in which the controlled articles are prescription drug samples.

3. A method of claim 2 in which the distributing representative is a pharmaceutical company'"'"'s sales representative and the distributees are licensed dispensing practitioners.

4. A method of claim 1 in which the step of evaluating the distribution request for propriety includes applying specific business logic received from the central inventory'"'"'s proprietor.

5. A method of claim 1 in which the request is received from the remote distributing representative over a communication path including a wireless link.

6. A method of claim 1 including the step of transmitting the request and the authorization code to the central inventory'"'"'s proprietor.

7. A method of claim 1 including transmitting a corrective action message to the distributing representative if the evaluation step results in an initial denial of authorization.

8. A method of claim 1 in which the request is received from the remote distributing representative by means of electronic transmission of information entered on a sample disbursement form.

9. A method of claim 1 including:

a) transmitting the packet from the central inventory to the distributing representative;

b) transmitting an acknowledgement of delivery from the distributing representatives to the system server; and

c) in the system server, electronically transferring the description of the packet'"'"'s contents from the central inventory to the local inventory.