TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/934158
Kris. "I'm sure there are many other people in the industry who have been doing it for years trying to figure it out. Why did this happen to us? I can't answer that. We love to celebrate the fact that it did happen. "I don't want to make Bob's head too big, but he has the Midas touch. He seems to never fail at anything. He puts in the time and the hours and he has the energy. Countless hours. Learning, studying. Trying to be the best he can." Always ambitious and driven, Ed- wards, who attended Plattsburgh State University in New York, started in the pharmaceutical business after college and formed his own company at age 25. He knew he couldn't com- pete with "big pharma," so, instead, focused on developing generic drugs that the major companies would likely overlook. "Big pharma, they were interested in hitting home runs," he said. "We just kept going for singles, and it worked." In 2013, he sold his Boca Pharma- cal, named after his adopted home- town, Boca Raton, Florida, to Endo Health Solutions for $225 million. In his mid-forties at the time and saddled with a non-compete clause, he wasn't ready for retirement. So he founded an animal pharmaceutical firm, which he named e5 Pharma. The "e" is for Ed- wards and the "5" is for the five mem- bers of the family, Bob, Kris, daughters Cassidy and Delaney and son Riley. The animal products company kept him busy, but, more importantly, the $225 million now sitting in his bank