(

a) The board shall deny any application for registration under this

chapter if any person licensed as a physician and surgeon, for whom the applicant, in accordance with

Section 2564.90, proposes to fill any prescription, has any proprietary interest, or has designated or arranged for any other person to have any proprietary interest in or with the applicant. (b)

(1) The board may, in accordance with

Section 2555, suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew the certificate of any individual or firm under this chapter, if such individual or firm, after the effective date of this section, fills, or has filled, while holding a certificate issued pursuant to this chapter, any prescription issued by any person licensed under

Chapter 5 (commencing with

Section 2000) who has any proprietary interest, or has designated or arranged for any other person to have any proprietary interest, in or with such individual or firm.

(2) Such penalties shall be in addition to, and not to the exclusion of, any other remedies or penalties provided by law. (3) “Proprietary interest,” for the purposes of this section, means any membership, coownership, stock ownership, legal or beneficial interest, any other proprietary interest, or profit-sharing arrangement, designated or arranged or held, directly or indirectly in any form, in or with any individual or firm applying for registration or registered under this chapter, except stock ownership in a corporation which is listed on a stock exchange regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission if the stock is acquired in a transaction conducted through such stock exchange. (

c) This

section shall apply only to a dispensing optician required to be registered pursuant to

Chapter 5.5 (commencing with

Section 2550) and shall not be construed to modify

Section 2557, or to affect the fitting of prescription lenses by an assistant pursuant to

Section 2544.