The Worldcom Public Relations Group has published the Healthcare Monitor Pharmaceuticals 2025-2026. The monitor, now in its fifth edition, examines how major pharmaceutical companies communicate in a digital environment where trust, findability, and relevance are increasingly decisive for the company’s reputation and for aligning properly with the experience and wishes of target groups.
The new edition differs significantly from the four previous editions. Whereas the previous reports compared pharmaceutical companies using a point system, the new Healthcare Monitor opts for a more diagnostic approach. In this version, the question is no longer who scores best, but rather why some top pharma companies communicate more effectively than others, how they do so, and what organizations can learn from this.
Research Design
The Healthcare Monitor analyzes 10 globally active pharmaceutical companies, namely AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, and Sanofi. The report maps how the pharmaceutical companies score on various components that together determine how strongly an organization communicates in a complex and rapidly changing media landscape.
These components are:
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), or the visibility of brands in AI responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews, among others
- Website performance, including website management, technical accessibility, navigation, internal links, redirects, loading speed, and digital efficiency
- Audience targeting and localization, with a focus on whether the content is optimized for patients, healthcare professionals, policymakers, investors, media, and potential employees
- Content strategy and editorial formats; the themes discussed on social and earned media, and the extent to which companies are visible and credible within the broader ecosystem of media, science, public discussion, and AI sources.
Pharma Industry Insights
An important conclusion is that communication is not just about the message itself. The research analyses four pillars of communication: website structure, relevant content, alignment with the target audience, and findability in AI engines. The report shows that even in the progressive pharmaceutical sector, where there is usually the right sense of urgency and sufficient budget for effective communication, there is still much room for improvement.
For instance, many companies still appear to view their websites as digital brochures, whereas by now they should be structured much more as ‘strategic trust’ platforms. Another finding is that communication challenges often do not arise from a lack of content, but from operational shortcomings of the websites, such as broken links, redirects, deep page structures, inconsistent templates, and insufficient internal findability.
The monitor also identifies clear areas for improvement in the field of target audience communication. Many companies attempt to serve multiple target audiences simultaneously with a single type of content. However, as a result, the relevance of the content for the individual target groups appears to diminish. The strongest pharmaceutical communication, according to the analyses, combines scientific accuracy, a human approach, concrete evidence, and clear follow-up steps, while applying the right focus depending on the target audience.
Generative Engine Optimization
One of the most striking components of the new monitor is the analysis of companies’ visibility in AI response engines. The monitor, which uses Brandi AI, a platform for enterprise brand intelligence and AI visibility for this section, shows that visibility in AI environments depends on very different factors than visibility based on classic SEO. Generative Engine Optimization is not about whether your organization appears on the first page of search results, but rather whether your organization is selected and trusted by generative systems and cited in their responses.
Broad scope, broad impact
The monitor was developed by the Worldcom PR Group, the international collaboration of nearly 100 independent PR agencies in 45 countries across six continents. As a result, the report combines international analysis with practical applicability for local markets. The insights are relevant not only for pharmaceutical companies but also for organizations in other sectors where trust, reputation, and digital findability are of strategic importance.
“This edition marks a clear shift in how we should view communication,” says Serge Beckers, global chair of Worldcom and initiator of the Healthcare Monitor Pharmaceuticals.
“A ranking is of course interesting, but it does not explain why communication works. With this Healthcare Monitor, we show that reputation increasingly depends on a good site structure, clear target audience choices, targeted and reliable content, and visibility in AI engines. Those who invest in this build not only better communication but also more trust.”
The report is available at Worldcom PR Group Healthcare Monitor Pharmaceuticals 2025/26.
