Google today posted a notice saying that telemedicine providers accredited by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) will be able to apply for Google Ads telemedicine certification in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The update to the three countries' sections of the Healthcare and medicines policy is due at an unspecified point in November 2026. Until now, the accreditation Google named for telemedicine providers in those markets has been LegitScript's Healthcare Merchant Certification Program, and that route stays open.

In Short

Online doctor services that want to run Google ads in the US, the UK and Canada first need approval from an outside checker, and so far that checker has been a company called LegitScript. Google says a second checker, the NABP, a US association of state pharmacy regulators, will also count once the November update is live, so these businesses get another way to qualify. Companies already approved keep their status, and Google still runs its own certification step after the outside check.

What Google posted

The notice, titled "Update to Healthcare and Medicines Policy (November 2026)", appeared in Google's Advertising Policies Help center and carries the line "Posted on November 4, 2026". It runs to two short paragraphs. Two dates matter, and they are not the same: the notice was published today, while the policy change itself is set for "November 2026" with no day attached.

According to Google, the Canada, United Kingdom and United States country-specifics of the Healthcare and medicines policy "will be updated to introduce a new certification option for telemedicine." The mechanism is spelled out in one sentence: "Going forward, telemedicine advertisers accredited by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP)'s Healthcare Merchant Accreditation Program will be eligible to apply for Google Ads telemedicine certification."

Google was explicit that nothing is being taken away. "This is an additional certification option, and doesn't impact the existing certification options available to advertisers in these countries," the notice states.

The order of steps is fixed. "Advertisers will be able to apply for Google certification once the policy is published," according to Google, and "Advertisers must be NABP-accredited before applying to Google." In practice, that makes NABP a gate in front of a gate: accreditation from the pharmacy body first, then a separate application to Google.

There is no enforcement timetable in the notice, and no warning period. That fits the nature of the change. Restrictive healthcare updates from Google have typically carried dated enforcement windows, as with the October 2025 change to prescription drug terms, which Google began enforcing on October 29, 2025 with a ramp of four to six weeks and a warning at least seven days before any account suspension. This update removes no option, so no advertiser stands to lose eligibility.

The notice is also less precise than some recent market openings. When Google extended telemedicine certification to Spain, it named August 5, 2026 as the start date in advance. This time the only marker is the month.

LegitScript's place in the three markets

The new route arrives in markets where one accreditor has dominated telemedicine certification for Google ads. Google's policy page for Canada names LegitScript's Healthcare Merchant Certification Program as the accreditation for telemedicine providers, and the United States and United Kingdom sections name the same program. The UK opening came in mid-2025: Google announced on June 25, 2025 that it would allow LegitScript-certified telemedicine providers in the UK to promote prescription drug services from July of that year.

Elsewhere, LegitScript's program has been the standard key to the category for some time. Google moved to allow LegitScript-accredited telemedicine providers in France in late 2023. In March 2024, it required South African telemedicine providers to obtain LegitScript accreditation. An announcement on April 8, 2026 opened Google ads to online pharmacies in India and telemedicine providers in New Zealand through the same certification, and Spain followed in August as the eleventh market on that list.

LegitScript's own figures show the scale of demand. In a release dated September 22, 2026, the company said telemedicine applications had risen 101% in a year, with telemedicine certifications up 80%, and listed 11 markets in which Google requires its certification for telemedicine providers and online pharmacies. Six days earlier, it said it had passed 10,000 certified websites.

Today's notice does not mention LegitScript by name. It refers only to "existing certification options", which remain in force.

What NABP accreditation involves

NABP is a US association whose members are state boards of pharmacy. Its Healthcare Merchant Accreditation is, in NABP's description, its broadest and most accessible accreditation program, open to health care and health-care-adjacent businesses around the world. According to NABP's program page, merchants typically use it to meet requirements set by online advertising platforms, with Google and Bing named as examples, and by card networks such as Visa and Mastercard. The same accreditation is a prerequisite for NABP's separate Digital Pharmacy Accreditation.

A dedicated track exists for telemedicine providers. According to NABP's telemedicine page, applicants are vetted for compliance with state laws on permitted telemedicine modalities and licensure, and every affiliated fulfillment pharmacy must also meet the program's standards. The application process includes two templates. The first, a prescriber licensure template, lists the licences held by prescribers in each state where services are offered. The second describes the telemedicine modality, which NABP defines as the mechanism of care, with audio-video consultations, audio-only consultations and asynchronous online questionnaires given as examples. After approval, the business must register and activate a .pharmacy domain name and enrol in an annual subscription to keep its accreditation, according to NABP.

NABP's case to telemedicine businesses goes beyond advertising. The organisation says the accreditation also helps providers meet card networks' certification and monitoring requirements for card-not-present transactions, and places them in a consumer-facing search tool as accredited merchants.

Ten standards

NABP's eligibility and standards page lists 10 standards: licensure, adverse action, location, validity of prescription, legal compliance, privacy, contact information, website transparency, domain name registration and affiliates. The affiliates standard reaches along the chain of care, covering downstream fulfillment pharmacies, upstream telemedicine platforms and medical providers.

Two of the standards bear directly on today's notice. The location standard, according to NABP, limits accredited merchants to offering services in the United States or in a country that has established an understanding with NABP. The same page sets out UK-specific conditions: online prescribers need registration with the Care Quality Commission, and those selling human medicines need registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.

The price

NABP publishes its fees. According to its fee policy, an organisation enrolling one website pays $1,075, and one enrolling three websites pays $3,225, so the cost scales per site. The first-year payment is an application fee that, if approval follows, covers a free first year of enrolment. An annual participation fee applies after that. NABP does not issue refunds on these fees, and the .pharmacy domain registration fee is paid separately to the domain registrar, which sets its own price.

The program pages do not state processing times. NABP makes its list of accredited merchants available through a request form rather than publishing a count, so the number of telemedicine businesses that would qualify on the day Google's update goes live is not public.

Pharmacies already had an NABP route

For online pharmacies, NABP is not new to Google's healthcare policy. In the Canada section of the policy page, Google already allows online pharmacies accredited by LegitScript, by NABP's Digital Pharmacy Accreditation, or through a .pharmacy domain under the Healthcare Merchant Accreditation Program. The United States section lists the same three options. In the United Kingdom, online pharmacies qualify through registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council, according to Google.

The November update therefore brings telemedicine in line with the pharmacy rules in North America, where both categories will accept accreditors other than LegitScript. In the UK, it is the first time Google names NABP for telemedicine, in a market where NABP's own standards already set out conditions for British providers.

What does not change

The Google step remains. Google's prescription drug services page says advertisers must be certified by Google to serve ads for prescription drug services, a category that covers online pharmacies and telemedicine providers, and that some certifications require third-party accreditation first, naming LegitScript, NABP and G2 as examples. Applications go through an online form and must be made at the level of the individual advertiser account, not the manager account, according to the same page. Google certification also sits on top of general advertiser verification, which confirms who is behind an account.

What a certified telemedicine advertiser can say in an ad does not change either. In Canada and the United States, Google has allowed promotional use of prescription drug terms since late 2025, in line with local law, but keyword targeting of those terms requires certification, according to the notice Google posted on October 14, 2025. In the United Kingdom, promotional use of prescription drug terms is not permitted. The 2025 UK opening let certified telemedicine providers promote their services but not prescription drugs in ads or on landing pages.

A separate certification governs personalised targeting. Since July 1, 2025, advertisers in the United States, Canada and New Zealand have needed a Restricted Drug Term Personalization certification to use Google's personalisation tools for products or services containing restricted drug terms aimed at healthcare professionals. Today's notice does not touch that program.

Nor does the update reach beyond Google Ads. In December 2025, Google told publishers that Authorized Buyers would not need Google certification to promote pharmaceutical content on partner inventory from January 2026, on the grounds that it lacks insight into those advertisers' identities.

What the notice leaves open

Several questions sit outside the two paragraphs Google published.

The first is timing. "Once the policy is published" depends on a date Google has not given. Advertisers that already hold NABP accreditation cannot apply to Google before then, and the notice does not say whether Google will post a further update when the country-specifics change.

The second concerns Canada. NABP's location standard ties accreditation to services offered in the United States or in countries that have an understanding with NABP. Whether a telemedicine provider operating only in Canada can meet that standard is a question the Google notice does not address.

The third is scope. The update covers three countries. Telemedicine providers in France, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand and the other markets where LegitScript certification is the named route are not mentioned, so nothing changes for them.

Finally, neither Google nor NABP gives figures on how many advertisers might use the new route. How quickly any meaningful number of telemedicine providers moves through NABP's process, including the licensure and modality templates and the checks on fulfillment pharmacies, will determine whether the second option changes the market in practice or stays largely theoretical.

Why this matters for marketers

Certification is the gate that decides who can buy healthcare search ads at all, and Google has been widening the surfaces behind that gate. At Google Marketing Live on May 20, 2026, Google confirmed a small US test of healthcare ads in AI Mode, limited to English-language queries. Eligible formats in that test included Performance Max, AI Max with search terms matching, Shopping and broad match, and the first iteration excluded creatives using pinning or text disclaimers. Healthcare ads had been kept out of placements within AI summaries since 2024.

Regulators have also kept pressure on drug marketing in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration sent more than 100 enforcement letters on September 9, 2025, and VAB later reported that pharmaceutical TV advertising rose 53% to $4.95 billion between October 2025 and March 2026. Third-party accreditation is one of the layers platforms use to decide which health businesses reach consumers through paid placements, alongside their own policies and review.

For telemedicine businesses and the agencies that run their campaigns, a second accreditor in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States means a choice between two sets of criteria, fees and timelines. NABP's per-website fee is public. LegitScript's pricing is not part of today's notice, so a direct cost comparison cannot be drawn from what Google published. The two bodies also differ in emphasis: NABP's standards focus on state licensure, prescription validity and the pharmacies that fill orders, and its accreditation is tied to a .pharmacy domain.

For LegitScript, the change ends its position as the only accreditor Google names for telemedicine in these three countries, though Google stresses that existing certifications are unaffected. Whether advertisers move, add a second accreditation or stay where they are will become visible only after the policy goes live.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Google, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) and telemedicine providers advertising through Google Ads in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. LegitScript, whose Healthcare Merchant Certification Program has been the accreditation Google named for telemedicine in these markets, keeps its role.

What: Google will update the three countries' sections of its Healthcare and medicines policy so that telemedicine advertisers accredited through NABP's Healthcare Merchant Accreditation Program can apply for Google Ads telemedicine certification. NABP accreditation must come first. NABP charges $1,075 per website, with the first-year payment treated as an application fee, and requires prescriber licensure details, a description of telemedicine modalities, compliant fulfillment pharmacies and an active .pharmacy domain.

When: Google posted the notice today, November 4, 2026. The policy update is due in November 2026, with no specific day given, and applications open once it is published.

Where: Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Other markets where Google requires telemedicine certification are not affected.

Why: Google describes the change as an additional certification option that does not affect existing ones. For advertisers, it adds a second accreditation route, with its own standards and published fees, to the certification that controls access to telemedicine ads in three English-speaking markets where LegitScript had been the only named route.