Methods for delivering a drug to a patient while restricting access to the drug by patients for whom the drug may be contraindicated

A method for delivering a drug to patients in need of the drug while restricting access to the drug by patients for whom the drug may be contraindicated, said method comprising permitting prescriptions for the drug to be filled by a pharmacy only after the pharmacy has retrieved an approval code for the prescription from a computer readable storage medium, wherein generation of the prescription approval code comprises the following steps:

• a. defining a plurality of patient risk groups based upon a predefined set of risk parameters for the drug;
• b. defining a set of information to be obtained from a patient, which information is probative of the risk that an adverse side effect is likely to occur if the drug is taken by the patient;
• c. in response to the information set, assigning the patient to at least one of the risk groups and entering the patient, the information and the patient's risk group assignment in the medium;
• d. based upon the information and the risk group assignment, determining whether the risk that the adverse side effect is likely to occur is acceptable;
• and
• e. upon a determination that the risk is acceptable, generating the prescription approval code to be retrieved by the pharmacy before the prescription is filled.