Cape Town, Glenview, Lausanne, Montevideo, New York, Paris, Tokyo, November 18, 2015. World COPD Day is observed each year in November to highlight the burden of this chronic respiratory disease affecting more than 200 million people globally and causing about 3 million deaths annually. COPD is the sixth major cause of death and disability in low- and middle income countries and is projected to become the third cause of death by 2020. The economic burden is enormous, in the US alone total costs for COPD were estimated to be about 50 billion USD in 2010.