The European Commission has approved Cymbalta, the anxiety drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co. The thumbs-up came from the commission's European Medicine Agency Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, the Indianapolis company said today.

The approval opens markets in 27 European Union nations as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Lilly estimates nine million Europeans suffer from generalized anxiety disorder.

Outside the United States, Cymbalta is jointly developed and marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH of Ingelheim, Germany.

Cymbalta sales nearly doubled in the second quarter for Lilly, to $310.4 million.