Born in a secular
Jewish family
Philadelphia in 1957 and raised in
Abington Township, Pennsylvania, the son of Albert Roberts. His father, a chemist, started URL Pharma in 1946 which manufactured steroidal hormones that treated pain by collecting pig pituitary glands from slaughterhouses. and gave
URL Pharma a three-year marketing exclusivity agreement 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). URL Pharma subsequently raised the price from $0.09 per tablet to $4.85; and in October 2010, the FDA removed the older unapproved colchicine (in both in oral and intravenous forms) from the market (although they allowed pharmacies the opportunity to buy up the older unapproved colchicine). Roberts indicated that the price increase mirrored other approved and branded drugs that were used to treat gout pain. URL Pharma returned to profitability ==Political activism==