DEKALB, Miss. (AP) - Officials in a rural Mississippi county say residents have been left without a pharmacy after a drug store chain closed this month.
The Clarion-Ledger reported Monday that Fred’s Pharmacy closed its location in DeKalb, Kemper County’s largest city, on Oct. 18. Mayor Clark Adams says residents will now have to travel about 30 miles (48 kilometers) to Meridian or Philadelphia to pick up prescriptions.
The chain had stores across the southeastern U.S., but announced this summer it’d be shuttering hundreds, including 35 in Mississippi.
Ryan Harper, the state’s pharmacy board president, says poor and elderly individuals without access to transportation are most impacted.
Adams said three retailers are interested in opening pharmacies, but it could take six months. Harper added that licensing requirements slow the process of opening new locations.
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