Born in a secular Jewish family Philadelphia in 1957[1] and raised in Abington Township, Pennsylvania,[2] the son of Albert Roberts.
[3] His father, a chemist, started URL Pharma in 1946 which manufactured steroidal hormones that treated pain by collecting pig pituitary glands from slaughterhouses.
[3] In 2009, the FDA approved colchicine as a monotherapy for the treatment of three different indications (familial Mediterranean fever, acute gout flares, and for the prophylaxis of gout flares)[4] and gave URL Pharma a three-year marketing exclusivity agreement[5] in exchange for URL Pharma doing 17 new studies and investing $100 million into the product (of which $45 million went to the FDA for the application fee).
[7] URL Pharma returned to profitability[1] with its gout treatment branded Colcrys consisting of 72% of the companies $600 million in sales in 2011.
[3][8][9] Roberts is a top donor to Republican politicians including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin,[1] and Rand Paul.