Pharma’s digital acceleration signals structural reset in regulated advertising

Pharmaceutical advertisers in India are accelerating their shift towards digital-led media planning, signalling a structural reset for one of the country’s most regulated and compliance-governed categories. According to the dentsu-e4m Digital Advertising Report, pharma increased its digital allocation from 54% in 2024 to 67% in 2025, positioning it as the third most digitally skewed sector after telecom (74%) and e-commerce (72%).

The rise in allocation has been accompanied by a significant jump in absolute spends. Digital ad spends in the pharma category grew from Rs 2,367 crore in 2024 to Rs 3,328 crore in 2025, an increase of nearly Rs 1,000 crore year-on-year. Despite this sharp growth, pharma continues to account for around 5% of total digital advertising, indicating that while the category is becoming more digitally intensive, its share of the overall digital pie remains stable.

For brands, however, the shift is less about numbers and more about structural reorientation.

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Amit Gupta, Founder & Managing Director, Leeford Healthcare Limited said, “In today’s world of highly intensive social media where mostly all conversations are driven online, having a digital-first media mix is a long-term structural reset rather than a short-term optimization.  Similar to all other businesses, digital has moved beyond being a performance add-on to becoming the backbone of media planning in pharma as well.”

He added that the shift reflects how stakeholders such as doctors, pharmacists and consumers increasingly access information, evaluate brands and make decisions digitally. For therapy areas like pain management and orthopaedics, digital enables layered communication that builds education, credibility and recall across the patient journey.

Between 2024 and 2025, the company saw a meaningful rise in digital allocation, in line with broader industry trends, with higher investments in video, search and data-led planning. For its Orthopedic & Mobility Aids division, the brand recently onboarded actor Tiger Shroff as ambassador and launched the nationwide ‘Fit Raho Hit Raho’ movement to reposition orthopedic supports as everyday lifestyle essentials. Digital budgets were reoriented to drive deeper engagement through digital films, clinician partnerships, workplace ergonomic initiatives, rural screening camps and physiotherapist training programmes.

“Our digital allocation increased by over 25% between 2024 and 2025. But the increase was strategic. We redirected spends toward search visibility, reputation management and export-oriented positioning rather than simply scaling impressions. For us, digital success is measured in trust and qualified engagement, not just traffic,” said Saurabh Agarwal, Director at HAB Pharma, echoing the structural nature of the shift

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Agarwal explained that digital has emerged as the first layer of trust, with distributors, institutional buyers and doctors increasingly validating credibility online before engaging offline. Unlike FMCG, he noted, pharma is not chasing virality but focused on structured visibility and long-term brand equity.

For Dr Batra’s Healthcare, the transition required little adjustment, as the brand has long operated as a digital-first business, allocating over 80% of its marketing budget to digital. The company cited faster time-to-market and always-on performance tracking as key advantages over traditional media.

Siddharth Bajaj, CMO, Dr Batra’s Healthcare said, “In a sector as dynamic as healthcare, the ability to perform real-time course correction based on multiple internal and external factors allows us to stay agile and maintain solid ROI compared to traditional mediums.” 

He described the broader movement as a digital-native evolution across patients, doctors and brands. With healthcare discovery increasingly happening across Google, LLMs, social media, reviews and testimonials, he said brands must adopt a digital-first approach to remain relevant. However, he cautioned that reallocating budgets to bottom-funnel performance alone is insufficient, stressing the need for patient-centric, science-backed narratives that shape demand at the discovery stage.

Industry experts view this acceleration as a sign of ecosystem maturity.

According to Ambika Sharma, Founder and Chief Strategist, Pulp Strategy, regulated categories like pharma do not move budgets impulsively, and a 13-point rise in digital allocation signals that digital is now being trusted, not tested. The shift, she said, is enabled by improved targeting, intent tracking and compliant communication journeys, helping bridge a category traditionally split between brand-building and field-force activation.

“Digital now bridges that gap with measurable, auditable pathways. This is not about chasing reach. It is about precision, traceability, and governance,” she noted. 

Regulatory compliance

As digital scales, compliance discipline remains central to planning conversations. Yasin Hamidani, Director, Media Care Brand Solutions, said platforms have evolved significantly, now offering stronger verification systems, restricted targeting filters, medical-content guidelines and detailed audit trails. These capabilities allow compliance teams to track who saw what, where and when which is a critical requirement for pharma advertisers.

He said, “The ecosystem has matured not just technologically but procedurally, making digital safer for regulated advertisers who once relied heavily on print and doctor-led channels.”

Gupta reiterated that in a highly regulated sector like pharma, message control remains paramount. He noted that all digital assets, across video and social, are developed under expert supervision with format-specific guardrails to ensure creativity does not compromise compliance. “At Leeford, digital scaling is accompanied by tighter review, and ongoing monitoring to ensure that speed and scale do not dilute regulatory discipline,” he said. 

HAB Pharma similarly stated that compliance standards remain intact across digital channels, with all communications undergoing internal medical and regulatory reviews. Prescription categories are limited to awareness-led messaging, while paid search is used selectively for D2C segments within strict claim boundaries.

Dr Batra’s Healthcare also stressed that compliance is non-negotiable, with multi-level content reviews and continuous monitoring. “Additionally, platforms like Google, Meta, and LinkedIn have stringent healthcare guidelines that prevent campaigns from running if they don't meet their criteria. So from both ends, creators and distributors, regulatory frameworks are ensured,” said Bajaj.

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Digital formats

Beyond allocation and governance, the format mix further underscores the nature of pharma’s digital acceleration. Industry experts noted that paid search and other high-intent formats are increasingly central to pharma media planning, as healthcare decisions typically begin with symptom- and treatment-led searches. Planning is shifting from reach to relevance and credibility, with paid search acting as the entry point, supported by structured content, doctor-education platforms and CRM-led systems that enable compliant and measurable engagement.

In 2025, paid search accounted for 42% of pharma’s digital spends, followed by social media at 28%, online video at 18%, and display banners at 13%. The heavy reliance on search highlights a focus on intent-driven engagement, with digital increasingly being used to capture high-intent queries rather than solely to build broad awareness.

“In pharma, intent matters more than reach. Paid search works well for D2C brands where the consumer is already searching. In institutional and export segments, credibility-building and authority positioning are equally important. Broad reach without relevance has limited value,” explained Agarwal.

Leeford reinforced that intent-led targeting is critical in solution-driven categories, with paid search capturing high-intent moments, supported by broader digital formats that build brand salience and share expertise. The focus, Gupta added, is on creating a seamless communication journey across channels.

Thus, pharma’s rapid digital acceleration signals more than a budget shift - it reflects a structural reordering of media priorities in one of India’s most tightly governed sectors. As allocation deepens and intent-led formats dominate, digital is emerging not just as a channel of efficiency, but as the primary engine of trust, compliance and scalable growth.