— Who said acupuncture helps you relax? According to researchers, there have been more than 50 documented cases worldwide of acupuncture spreading infectious disease due to contaminated needles and lack of skin disinfection. While most cases involve bacteria, they warn that hepatitis C and HIV are also possibilities, although there are no official reports. The authors call for tighter regulations — including the use of disposable needles — in today’s editorial. (Reuters)

— Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest generic drug maker, reportedly beat out Pfizer in a bidding war for Germany’s No. 2 generics maker, Ratiopharm. The $5 billion deal expands the Israeli company’s reach in Germany, the second-largest generics market after the US (Bloomberg). For more on Teva, check out our Q&A with chief executive Shlomo Yanai in this month’s issue of Nature Medicine.

— Pfizer has dropped its patent lawsuit against Eli Lilly, but terms of the agreement have not been made public. The Viagra maker filed its case way back in 2002, alleging infringement by Lilly’s rival drug, Cialis. Last month, however, the US Patent Office rejected part of the suit because an enzyme inhibitor in Viagra was also found in the Chinese herbal remedy yin yang huo, better known as horny goat weed. Looks like Lilly’s no longer got Pfizer’s goat. (Reuters)

— Some factors in our development are just out of our control — even our genes’ control. Researchers analyzed two transcriptions factors, NF-kB and RNA PolIII, across ten people and found that binding sites differed by 7.5% and 25%, respectively. Transcription factors might be more responsible for human variability than previously thought. (SciAm)

Image by ~ggvic~ via Flickr Creative Commons