Liberal Judge Susan Crawford was a hired gun for an Israeli Big Pharma company that later entered into massive settlements for its key role in fueling the opioid epidemic that led to the deaths of thousands of Wisconsinites, Wisconsin Right Now has documented.
Court records show that Crawford was an attorney of record representing Teva Pharmaceuticals and its subsidiary Actavis in 2016, as a private lawyer in Madison, on a price-fixing lawsuit. She’s also listed in court records as representing Teva in 2014. Crawford was also listed as a lawyer representing Teva in a third lawsuit involving Wisconsin. It accused pharmaceutical companies of inflating drug prices to Wisconsin Medicaid.
Teva was a key player in fueling the opioid crisis in the United States, lawsuits alleged.
According to the Washington Post, in a 2019 story, a DEA database attributed “the vast majority of the 76 billion opioid pills produced and shipped from 2006 through 2012 to three companies that are now controlled by large multinational drugmakers,” listing among them, “Actavis, part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in Israel.”
Noted the Post, “Actavis’ sales of the generic version of OxyContin and other drugs containing oxycodone grew from 559 million in 2006 to more than 1.1 billion in 2012.”
In 2023, Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul announced “the final approval of $17.3 billion in opioid agreements with drug makers” and pharmacies, including Teva, as the culmination of a multi-state lawsuit. “The opioid crisis has resulted in harm to countless people, and those who fueled the crisis must be held accountable,” Kaul said in a press release.
More than 13,000 Wisconsinites died from opioid overdoses between 2000 and 2022 alone, according to the state of Wisconsin.
According to Kaul, states alleged that Teva:
- “promoted potent, rapid-onset fentanyl products for use by non-cancer patients;”
- “deceptively marketed opioids by downplaying the risk of addiction and overstating their benefits, including encouraging the idea that signs of addiction are actually “pseudoaddiction” treated by prescribing more opioids;”
- “failed to comply with suspicious order monitoring requirements along with its distributor, Anda.”
Rewind to 2016 and 2014, and one of the lawyers who represented Teva’s interests was… Susan Crawford, the liberal lawyer who is now running for state Supreme Court against former Republican AG Brad Schimel. This is documented in court records.
Perhaps ironically, Susan Crawford represented the pharmaceutical company in a lawsuit originally brought by Kaul’s mother, former Democratic AG Peg Lautenschlager, who was acting as a private citizen on behalf of the State of Wisconsin.
Explaining Susan Crawford’s Involvement
In the suit that involved Crawford on the side of Big Pharma, multiple pharmaceutical companies, including Teva, were accused of violating “Wisconsin’s now-repealed False Claims for Medical Assistance Act,” the appellate decision in the 2016 case says. Crawford and the other lawyers succeeded in getting the case thrown out.
In May 2016, the suit alleged the pharmaceutical companies “defrauded the State and its Medicaid program by causing the submission of false pricing information regarding prescription drugs, in violation of the FCMAA.” The appellate decision says the pharmaceutical companies’ lawyers argued that the repeal of FCMAA (signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker) rendered the lawsuit moot, and the court agreed.
In 2024, the price-fixing accusations finally caught up to Teva. “Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has agreed to pay $450 million to resolve allegations it used charities that help cover Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket drug costs as a means to pay kickbacks to boost sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone and conspired to fix prices for generic drugs,” wrote the Times of Israel.
In the 2016 case, Crawford is listed in circuit court records as an attorney of record for Teva Pharmaceuticals in this case:
Dane County Case Number 2016CV001262
State of Wisconsin Ex rel. vs. Actavis Mid Atlantic LLC et al
She is listed as an attorney for Teva along with Lester Pines, also an attorney at the private law firm where she worked at the time (her work for that firm included filing lawsuits seeking to overturn Act 10 and Voter ID).
Crawford is also listed as an attorney for Actavis Mid Atlantic, LLC, as well as for Teva on the appeal.
The Supreme Court refused a petition by another lawyer for review. The appellate decision is here.
It says, “Relator William P. Rippl appeals from a circuit court order dismissing a lawsuit commenced against Actavis Mid Atlantic, LLC, and other pharmaceutical companies, alleging that they violated Wisconsin’s now-repealed False Claims for Medical Assistance Act (FCMAA), formerly WIS. STAT. § 20.931 (2013-14).” The appeals court affirmed the lower case’s decision.
The case was initially brought by Lautenschlager, but she died before it finished and was replaced by Rippl, her husband, according to the appeals court decision.
In 2019, Kaul joined a multi-state price-fixing lawsuit against Teva. “Among the evidence now public are emails between generic drug manufacturers coordinating their response to a Congressional inquiry, emails enforcing ‘fair share’ and ‘playing nice in the sandbox’ market allocation, ‘fluff pricing’ strategy and other brazen coordination to artificially inflate prices, hinder competition and unreasonably restrain trade across the industry,” his press release says.
Susan Crawford is also listed as an attorney for Teva Pharmaceuticals in this case, also involving Lautenschlager:
Dane County Case Number 2014CV002293
State of Wisconsin et al vs. Actavis Mid Atlantic LLC et al
See the appellate record here.
Teva has continued to run into controversies.
“The European Commission said Thursday it has fined Israeli generic drugmaker Teva more than 460 million euros ($500 million) for improperly seeking to protect the patent for its multiple sclerosis drug and for disparaging a rival company’s development of a competing medicine,” the Associated Press reported in 2024.
Court records show Crawford entered the third case as a lawyer for Teva on June 23, 2014, and withdrew on July 29, 2014.
That case is: Dane County Case Number 2004CV001709 State of WI vs. Abbott Laboratories et al
The third case accused the drug companies of inflating prices to defraud Medicaid.
Table of Contents
