Medicine Shoppe shuttered due to rising drug costs, competition

After more than two decades in business, The Medicine Shoppe, a locally owned franchise pharmacy, has closed its doors in the Highland Village shopping center at the intersection of Highland Road and Lee Drive. Ironically, longtime owner Keith Denoux says it was the high cost of prescription drugs that drove him in mid-November to shut down the business he has owned and operated since 1992. “In the past seven years the cost of my health insurance has gone from $300 per month to $3,000 per month,” says Denoux, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005. “If you have a chronic disease and you’re a self-insured small business owner, you can’t afford your insurance.” Another reason Denoux decided to call it quits was competition from the new Walgreens, which opened earlier this year across the road from Highland Village. The chain has since hired Denoux as a store pharmacist. “Really, it worked out perfectly,” he says. The space that formerly housed Denoux’s store remains vacant. —Stephanie Riegel