May 30 (Bloomberg) -- Merck KGaA and ImClone Systems Inc.'s Erbitux was backed for approval by a European Union advisory panel as a first-choice therapy for patients whose colon cancer has spread to other parts of the body. The London-based European Medicines Agency said Erbitux can be given as the first drug in colon-cancer treatment in patients who carry an unmutated kras gene, restricting its use to about 65 percent of patients, Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck said today in an e-mailed statement. The European Commission usually follows the recommendations of the agency within three months.
