Keep God Weird

, the shaper of the Erbitux
cancer medicine, asked European regulators to O.K. the drug
for usage as a first pick to handle head-and-neck malignant neoplastic disease patients.

The drug's label would be expanded to include patients with
recurrent or metastatic squamous cell malignant neoplastic disease of the caput and neck,
Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck said in an e-mailed statement
today. About 140,000 Europeans develop the word form of malignant neoplastic disease each
year, and more than than 65,000 die, the company said.

Merck is using information from a survey dubbed 'EXTREME' to support
the application, showing that Erbitux increased overall survival
time by 2.7 calendar months when added to platinum-based chemotherapy. The
drug currently is used in patients with locally advanced squamous
cell malignant neoplastic disease of the caput and cervix and colon malignant neoplastic disease that have spread. Merck had first-quarter Erbitux gross sales of 145 million euros
($224.4 million).

''Erbitux stands for a existent discovery for the first-line
treatment of caput and cervix malignant neoplastic disease as it is the first treatment in
more than 30 old age to demo a important endurance benefit,''
, Merck's caput of oncology, said in the release.

rose 1.02 euros, or 1.2 percent, to 88.01 Euroes at
2:21 p.m. inch Frankfurt On The Main trading.

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