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Hidden in Plain Sight: The Compliance Risks of Search Engine Indexed Pharma Content

March 21, 2025 |  

Pharma companies must balance HCP access and MHRA/ABPI compliance by preventing public search indexing of promotional prescription medicine content.

Pharma SEO

Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly using online platforms to share important information with healthcare professionals (HCPs). While this offers a modern and efficient way to communicate, it also raises significant compliance challenges. One key question that companies need to address is whether having promotional materials—including Prescribing Information (PI) pages—indexed by search engines could lead to regulatory breaches.

In the UK, regulations from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) are clear: the promotion of prescription-only medicines (POMs) to the general public is strictly prohibited. The ABPI Code of Practice explicitly states that promotional content for prescription medicines must not be accessible to the public. But what does this mean for online promotional materials that can be discovered via search engines?

When promotional pages are indexed by search engines like Google, there is a risk that members of the general public could find them in search results. Even if the actual content is behind an HCP confirmation wall, search engine snippets, page titles, or meta descriptions may reveal information that could be interpreted as promotional. This kind of exposure could potentially breach MHRA and ABPI guidelines, resulting in significant compliance risks for the company.

Common Compliance Risks

One major issue with indexed promotional materials is public exposure. Search snippets or meta descriptions can inadvertently disclose medicine names, uses, or even promotional phrases. Even if these details seem minimal, they may still be viewed as promotion, and this is where companies could find themselves in breach of regulations.

Another risk lies in the limitations of access controls. Simply requiring HCPs to confirm their credentials after clicking on a search result doesn’t fully eliminate the risk. The information visible in search engine results might still be interpreted as advertising POMs to the public, which is against UK regulations.

Best Practices for Compliance

To minimise these risks, pharmaceutical companies should implement a few key strategies:

  • Prevent Search Indexing: Use meta tags like “noindex” or configure your robots.txt file to prevent search engines from indexing your promotional content.
  • Robust Access Controls: Ensure that HCPs are verified before accessing any promotional content, and make it clear that the material is intended only for qualified professionals.
  • Monitor Search Visibility: Regularly check search engine results to ensure none of your promotional materials are unintentionally exposed.
  • Audit & Write Complaint Metadata: Review page titles and meta descriptions to ensure no promotional content is inadvertently exposed.

Balancing Accessibility with Compliance

Maintaining the right balance between making information easily accessible to HCPs while ensuring compliance with MHRA and ABPI guidelines can be a challenging aspect of pharma SEO. Utilising secure, direct communication channels, or professional platforms specifically designed for HCPs, can help mitigate compliance risks while still providing essential information to the right audience.

For a more detailed exploration of this topic and practical strategies to stay compliant, check out our full article: Compliance Risks of Indexing Promotional Pharmaceutical Content for SEO: Key Insights on MHRA and ABPI Guidelines

This content was provided by Genetic Digital

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