After hanging up a "pharmacy closed" sign more than a month ago, the pharmacy at Decker Drugs stopped filling prescriptions last week.

"Financial reasons caused us to close. What it costs to staff and stock the pharmacy, versus what we make from it just didn"t add up," said Lisa Aunins, Decker Drugs manager and pharmacy technician.

The closing of Decker Drugs" pharmacy follows that of several other local pharmacies. Food & Drug Mart, Mindell"s Pharmacy and Community Pharmacy have all closed in the past six years.

"We tried to be competitive," Aunins said, "but we couldn"t compete with the big chains and we had to fight with insurance companies to get payments for prescriptions all the time."

Decker Drugs, 320 S. State, has transferred its pharmacy clients" records to the CVS Pharmacy on South Industrial Highway.

But some students said they do not want to travel off campus to fill prescriptions.

"A lot more students have come in to get prescriptions filled since Decker closed," said Gary Turner, owner of Village Apothecary, 1112 S. University Ave.

"Our prices are lower than Decker"s were and they will remain so. The price of your prescription will be higher or lower depending on your insurance. We accept over 300 insurance plans from all over the country so we have always been more competitive," Turner added.

Now that some area pharmacies have gone out of business, several students said they have turned to the University Health Services pharmacy. But others claim they already knew UHS was the least-expensive place to go.

"I have been to Village Apothecary before, but with the insurance I have, UHS is the cheapest place to get my prescriptions," said Amy Wahlfield, an LSA freshman.

Other students appreciate the on-campus location UHS provides.

"I just saw a doctor here and the pharmacy is right downstairs. I"ve never gone anywhere else so I don"t know if this is the cheapest, but I"ve heard from other students that it is," said Charles Choi, an Engineering graduate student.

"We have had a slight increase in students wanting to transfer their prescription records since Decker Drugs closed," said Gwendolyn Chivers, UHS chief pharmacist.

The pharmacy at UHS makes an effort to keep the cost of prescriptions down, and Chivers said often times their prescriptions do cost less than other pharmacies.

The price of prescriptions varies depending on the time length of the prescription and whether or not the medication is generic or a name brand, Chivers said.

She added that UHS tries to use less-expensive generic brands whenever possible unless a physician specifies otherwise.

At UHS, a dose of Penicillin that lasts 10 days will cost about $7.20, a package of birth control pills costs $12 and an allergy medicine such as Claritin is $70 for a 30-day supply.

"We encourage people to compare prices and tell us if ours are not competitive," Chivers said.