Germany’s Merck KGaA announced Friday that Erbitux, which it licensed from ImClone System Inc and sells in Europe, was backed by the European Committee for Human Medicinal Products for its use as a first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in patients with a certain type of tumor.

The ECHMP recommended the drug for people with so-called KRAS wild-type tumors in combination with chemotherapy, the company said in a statement. Up to 65 percent of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer have tumors with the KRAL gene.

Merck said that clinical trials showed that Erbitux, approved to treat head and neck tumors in April 2006 as well as colon cancer in 2004 (that has progressed despite treatment with other drugs), combined with chemotherapy treatment increased the efficacy compared with chemotherapy alone.

Erbitux faces fierce competition from Avastin from Genentech Inc and Roche Holding AG. The drug generated sales of 470 million Euros for the company last year.

Erbitux’ benefits are expected to dominate discussions at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, scheduled to open on Friday in Chicago, as health experts are waiting for the results of a long-awaited trial in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The trial, called Flex, achieved its goal to increase survival. However, health experts are curious about exactly how much longer patients were shown to live.