The town of Portsmouth, England, where many former dock workers at stricken with asbestos-caused mesothelioma, has decided that it will not fund the use of the drug Alimta© to treat local patients because it’s not “effective enough.”

Alimta, which in the U.S. is the only FDA-approved chemotherapy drug for the treatment of mesothelioma, is being denied to Portsmouth residents and to those in several other British towns, because the National Health Service (NHS) believes a drug that only prolongs life for about 3 months on average is not cost-effective. They also claim the drug has horrendous side effects.

Other places in the United Kingdom where hundreds were exposed to asbestos, including Liverpool, Scotland, and Newcastle, have allowed the use of the drug, which when combined with another chemo drug, Cisplatin, relieves many of the painful symptoms of the disease, including shortness of breath and chest pain.

According to Porstmouth Today, a local newspaper which recently profiled the dilemma, the decision angers residents like 75-year-old Roy Beane, who once worked at the town’s shipyard.

“I used to walk the dogs for two hours a day, now I can’t even walk up the hill. I haven’t worked near asbestos for 50 years,” says Beane. “The pain never goes away. It’s a constant reminder. My left lung has practically collapsed.”

His wife, June, 73, added: “He deserves to have Alimta. So do hundreds of other people with this terrible disease. Roy is my life. I would do anything for him – I would have this disease for him if I could.”

According to the article, Portsmouth has the sixth highest mesothelioma death rate among men in Great Britain and the figures are expected to continue to rise. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has only currently recommended Alimta for use as part of on-going trials but will make decisions pertaining to further use later in the year.

“Perhaps there is a case to be made that because Portsmouth is a hotspot for mesothelioma the primary care trust should consider Alimta a top priority,” noted Portsmouth parliamentary member Sarah McCarthy-Fry. She has asked the health secretary to speed up the decision.

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