As AI-generated summaries increasingly dominate the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), marketing teams in highly regulated sectors, especially pharma, face a new kind of compliance risk. For healthcare organisations promoting to professionals but required to gate their content from the public, Google’s AI Overviews, and AI platforms in general, raise critical questions.
Can your gated HCP content be surfaced and misrepresented by AI? And if it is, who’s liable?
Let’s unpack what this means for global healthcare marketers.
When your gated content becomes public
Even if your content is gated - for example, behind a modal that verifies healthcare professional (HCP) status - AI crawlers may still “see” and summarise the underlying text if it’s in the HTML. This creates a compliance grey area: your page appears gated to the human user, but fully accessible to crawlers.
And that’s the catch. Regulators don’t care who displayed the information, only that it was made publicly available.
In the UK, Clause 26 of the ABPI Code prohibits direct-to-public promotion of prescription-only medicines (POMs). This includes any content made accessible online that could be interpreted as promotional. Google’s AI Overviews, which often strip context and disclaimers, can surface HCP-intended text and present it to the general public, whether you like it or not.
Regulatory precedent: what the cases tell us
The PMCPA has not yet ruled on a case involving AI Overviews specifically, but we’re already seeing strong signals:
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In a 2023 case involving Proveca (AUTH/3812/8/23), the Panel noted its concern that even though access controls were in place, Google’s indexing still risked exposing HCP content to the public.
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Other Clause 26 rulings (e.g. AGB-Pharma, Novavax) have found companies in breach for unintentionally allowing content to be reached via search.
Across Europe, similar rules apply under EFPIA. In the US, the FDA has issued guidance that suggests companies may still be responsible for third-party content if they control the context in which it appears.
Why AI Overviews make things worse
AI Overviews increase the risk of non-compliance in several ways:
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High visibility: These summaries often appear above all other organic listings---meaning they’re the first thing a user sees.
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Stripped context: Disclaimers, footnotes, and HCP-only labels are removed, making promotional claims look like direct advice to the public.
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Hallucinations: AI systems sometimes “fill in the blanks,” presenting claims that go beyond your actual content.
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Persistence: Even if you fix the source, Overviews may continue to show out-of-date information for days or weeks.
The result: your carefully gated content might be repackaged as unlabelled public-facing advice.
Could you just blame Google?
Unfortunately, no.
In regulated industries, companies are typically held strictly liable for promotional content they originate---regardless of whether a third party redisplays or modifies it.
If your page was structured in a way that allowed crawlers to ingest and reuse HCP content, regulators are likely to consider that a failure of control. And that could expose your organisation to breach rulings, audits, corrective notices---or worse.
What marketers can do to mitigate risk
| Action | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Use noarchive,nosnippet tags | Prevents content from appearing in AI Overviews or search result previews. |
| Verify bot access | Allow full content only to verified bots (like Googlebot); serve public abstracts or teasers to others. |
| Publish abstract-only pages | Create indexable pages with patient-safe summaries; keep full HCP content no-indexed. |
| Monitor brand + drug queries | Use Search Console alerts to detect when sensitive content is appearing in SERPs or summaries. |
| Maintain a rapid response SOP | Be ready to issue corrections (FDA encourages this) or disclaim responsibility where needed. |
| Document your controls | Internal SOPs and metadata policies can help demonstrate due diligence if challenged. |
A fast-changing landscape
At Medico Digital, we’re already working with clients in the EU, AU and US markets to review gating structures, meta-data usage, and structured content layouts to ensure AI-generated outputs don’t inadvertently cross regulatory lines.
The line between HCP and public audiences is becoming harder to enforce in the AI age---but it’s more important than ever to try.
Want help reviewing your HCP content for AI exposure risk?
We’re actively supporting global pharma and medtech clients to futureproof their digital content strategies against emerging AI and search risks. If you’d like an audit or advice tailored to your market, get in touch.
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