If you are familiar with the fraudulent practices of the pharmaceutical industry, then you know how much power some of these companies have. Cancer drugs are a multi-billion dollar business. In the past, we have seen Big Pharma use the power of the state to grant themselves monopolies on drugs to control the market. We have also seen outrageous price rises in many useful and necessary drugs. In light of this information, the following story should come as no great shock.

After getting its hands on leaked internal documents, including emails and presentations, The London Times recently revealed that one of the world's leading drug companies created artificial shortages and threatened to destroy supplies of life-saving cancer drugs to drive up prices in Europe.

South African company Aspen Pharmacare, whose European headquarter is based in Dublin, wanted to impose a rise of up to 4,000 percent after purchasing the portfolio of cancer drugs from the British firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for more than £270 million (or nearly $350 million) in 2009.