---
title: O.C.G.A. § 26-4-172. License requirements generally.
collection: code
id: 26-4-172
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 26-4-172 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/26-4-172
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/26-4-172.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/26-4-172/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t24-t26-(v21)-2023-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=5423edd_0#page=602
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/26-4.md
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: FOOD, DRUGS, AND COSMETICS / PHARMACISTS AND PHARMACIES / NUCLEAR PHARMACY LAW
---

# O.C.G.A. § 26-4-172. License requirements generally.

(a) All persons, firms, pharmacies, or corporations which receive, possess, transfer, or manufacture for sale or resale radiopharmaceuticals shall be licensed in accordance with the provisions of this article. No person may receive, acquire, possess, compound, or dispense any radiopharmaceutical except in accordance with the provisions of this article and the conditions of rules and regulations promulgated by the Board of Natural Resources for radioactive materials and administered by the department. The requirements of this article are in addition to, and not in substitution of, other applicable statutes and regulations administered by the State Board of Pharmacy or the department.

(b) Nothing in this article shall be construed as requiring a licensed physician to obtain a separate license as a nuclear pharmacist, when his or her use of radiopharmaceuticals is limited to the diagnosis and treatment of his or her own patients.

(c) Nothing in this article shall be construed so as to require a clinical laboratory certified by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is licensed by the Department of Community Health to handle radioactive materials, to obtain the services of a nuclear pharmacist, or to have a nuclear pharmacy license, unless the laboratory is engaged in the commercial sale or resale of radiopharmaceuticals.

(d) Nothing in this article shall be construed to require a department of nuclear medicine which is located in a hospital of 250 beds or less, which has a board certified radiologist in the practice of nuclear medicine, and which is licensed by the department to handle radioactive materials to obtain the services of a nuclear pharmacist or to have a nuclear pharmacy license.

## History

Code 1981, § 26-4-172, enacted by Ga. L. 1999, p. 277, § 10; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 1-4/HB 228; Ga. L. 2021, p. 472, § 2/HB 93.

The 2021 amendment, effective July 1, 2021, substituted “require a clinical laboratory certified by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services” for “require a licensed clinical laboratory” near the beginning of subsection (c).