Women to Watch: Sheetal Dandekar of JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals
Sheetal Dandekar, assistant vice president at JB Pharma, has been an advocate for leveraging packaging innovations to enhance disease management in healthcare. She believes that packaging can better disease management by improving adherence and compliance, offering clear instructions, enhancing accessibility, and incorporating child-resistant and anti-counterfeiting features.
09 Sep 2024 | By Anushka Chourasia
Sheetal Dandekar is the assistant vice president at JB Pharma
With over 22 years of experience, Sheetal Dandekar has held various leadership roles in sales, marketing, and strategy at pharmaceutical companies, including JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Lupin, Alembic, and German Remedies. Currently, she leads two critical cardiology divisions at JB Pharma, managing a team of 770 employees and overseeing divisions that contribute Rs. 500 Cr to the group.
Notably, she addressed the challenge of medication adherence among elderly patients with chronic diseases, such as hypertension, where nearly 40% of patients forget to take their medications. To combat this, Dandekar introduced a patient-friendly calendar pack, which labels the days of the week to help patients remember their doses.
Providing insights into the emerging trends in Indian pharmaceutical packaging, Dandekar said, “The industry is continuously evolving with innovations such as automated assembly lines and new drug delivery systems like inhalers and patches.” The market, estimated to reach $4.7 billion by 2024 with a CAGR of 8.7%, is focusing on eco-friendly packaging, improved accessibility, child-resistant features, tamper-evident designs, and track-and-trace systems.
She advises aspiring women leaders to couple their success with positive organisational change, emphasising that women possess unique skills and perspectives that make them well-suited for leadership positions. In her team, 60% of senior management positions are held by women, reflecting her commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Dandekar encourages more women to enter the healthcare sector and make meaningful contributions to society.
Dandekar’s contributions to the pharmaceutical industry have been recognised with several awards, including the ACE Award for Global Leadership at JB Pharma and multiple CEO awards. Her academic contributions extend to publishing papers on topics such as the role of e-pharmacy in pharmaceutical marketing.
(In this series, WhatPackaging? highlights the women who set new standards in our industry every day.)