As vice president and business head for Dr. Reddy’s Self-Care and Wellness division, Ashish Girotra leads a relatively new venture within the company focused on building a branded consumer health business in the U.S. market. While Dr. Reddy’s has been active in this consumer health space for decades through its presence in the private label O-T-C segment, this initiative marks its shift toward branded consumer health offerings. Girotra’s role involves shaping the strategic road map and scaling the business with the aspiration to establish Dr. Reddy’s as a leading player in the consumer health segment. Its purpose is to cater to unmet, unspoken needs of patients with science-backed solutions and help advance overall standard of care.
Q: Can you give us a little bit of a description of your background before coming to Dr. Reddy’s?
GIROTRA: I’ve been with Dr. Reddy’s for over 16 years, essentially starting my career here after a brief stint at a boutique consulting firm. I began my journey here at the company at our global headquarters in Hyderabad as chief of staff in the emerging markets business unit, then moved into corporate planning where I had this incredible opportunity to work directly with global CXOs and got all-round exposure to all the different businesses across the organization and played a part in a diversified set of strategic projects spanning global markets. Later, I relocated to the U.S. to lead the strategic planning function for our North America generics business. In 2015, having led the acquisition of the Habitrol brand and its integration into the organization, I transitioned to the consumer business role, and that journey has led me to my current role. I also happened to lead the investor relations function for the organization in the U.S. for quite some time, which provided me with an excellent outside-in perspective in the pharmaceutical space.
Q: Can you go into a little more detail about what your responsibilities entail?
GIROTRA: I’ve had the privilege of working across various markets and functions within the organization, corporate planning, business development and operations. Before this role, I led product management and marketing for our private label O-T-C business. Now, I oversee everything from strategic planning to team building and brand development for our Self-Care and Wellness division.
Q: So, what skills and training do you feel you need for this position?
GIROTRA: I believe there are two core competencies that are absolutely vital to this business: Consumer-centricity and scientific solutions. Consumer-centricity — empathy and ability to understand unmet and unspoken health needs of our consumers — is foundational. Equally important is leveraging our scientific capabilities to develop effective, evidence-based solutions to cater to these needs and elevate overall standard of care.
Additionally, building a strong, collaborative culture with an entrepreneurial and agile mindset in this new business, which is a part of a large established organization, has also been a key focus for me over the last couple of years while laying out a strategic road map to achieve our growth aspirations.
Q: How do you interact with other departments to achieve your goals?
GIROTRA: Collaboration is central to our success. I firmly believe in this core principle that, for any business, people come before anything else. Whether it’s products, processes or projects, people precede all these and, hence, they’re the most valuable asset we have as we strive to achieve organizational objectives. Although our core team is about 15 people, we work closely with nearly every function within the organization — R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, medical affairs, digital, finance, HR and more. It truly takes a village to build a business, and our cross-functional partnerships are critical to both short-term execution and long-term sustainability.
Q: Are you involved in managing system upgrades and improving the internal sales operations process?
GIROTRA: Yes. As we built this business, we had to both adapt existing systems and create new ones to support our unique needs. I would say that in such a short span of time we covered a lot of ground on this front to have a solid foundation on which we can build a scalable business in years to come.
As it relates to sales processes, while initially focused on e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels, we’re now expanding into retail with a growing presence across national and regional retailers. We currently rely on strategic partners for sales services, and as we grow, we’re developing more robust internal processes to sustain growth.
Q: What changes have you seen in health care marketing over the past several years?
GIROTRA: One of the most significant shifts has been the rise of self-care, especially post-COVID. Consumers are now more proactive about their health, seeking solutions beyond traditional medicine. Evolving technology is accelerating this trend, enabling improved access and more personalized health care. The power is increasingly in the hands of consumers, and that’s reshaping the entire landscape. And with the advent of AI, we are likely to witness further disruption in self-care, with e-commerce potentially giving way to what is beginning to be known as agentic commerce.
Q: The next question kind of builds on a previous one. Where do you feel the opportunities and challenges are for the brands that you manage?
GIROTRA: We see tremendous opportunity. Our brands are still emerging, with a lot of room to grow. We currently play in areas like smoking cessation, pain relief and women’s wellness, and there is a lot of opportunity to bring differentiated and science-backed solutions to cater to the unmet needs in these spaces. I believe the opportunity is unlimited. We’re just getting started.
The challenge lies in keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology — especially AI and machine learning. Staying ahead of these trends is crucial for delivering relevant, innovative solutions.
Q: Do you want to mention any brands that you work with?
GIROTRA: Absolutely. We manage several promising brands:
• Healthcare Aisle — A value brand available exclusively on Amazon, offering solutions for everyday health needs like antacids, cough/cold and allergy, pain and eye care, etc.
• Doan’s — A legacy brand for back pain, with a rich history and strong consumer trust.
• Habitrol — Our smoking cessation brand, offering various formats to support quitting.
• MenoLabs — A wellness brand focused on menopause and healthy aging, focused on the purpose to forge a future where menopause becomes “menoprogress.”
We’re confident in the potential of these brands and aim to grow this portfolio to over $150 million in the next few years.
In addition, we are actively looking for select M&A opportunities to augment our current portfolio. Our criterion for this mandate is such that we expect these assets to be among leading players in their respective segments, have sufficient headroom for growth while being cash accretive. Combining with our existing portfolio, this would put us on track towards our aspiration to achieve $250 million-plus in sales for the self-care business by 2030.
Q: One last question: What do you like best about what you do?
GIROTRA: It’s incredibly fulfilling to know that our work helps people live healthier lives. That sense of purpose aligns with Dr. Reddy’s mission — Good Health Can’t Wait — and it’s what motivates me every day.
