Just happened to me as well. Killed Thalla (normally) hours ago, now I need to talk to the apothecary for the main quest and I can't.
When I approached the apothecary, Thalla spawned in, I killed him again, and he immediately despawned without the death animation. Reloaded, fought him again, killed him again, and he died normally and dropped loot this time, but I still cannot talk to the apothecary. Saved and then loaded the new save, and Thalla is gone, but I still cannot to talk to the apothecary.
This seems like an issue you can stumble into pretty easily, hopefully a patch isn't too far off.