Competing interests
The study was funded by Zentiva, Prague, Czech Republic, and was performed in compliance with Good Clinical Practice. Zentiva played no role in the conduct of the study. Henry Chrystyn has no shares in any pharmaceutical companies. He has received sponsorship to carry out studies, together with some consultant agreements and honoraria for presentation, from several pharmaceutical companies that market inhaled products. These include Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Innovata Biomed, Meda, Napp Pharmaceuticals, Mundipharma, NorPharma, Norvartis, Orion, Sanofi, Teva, Truddell Medical International, UCB and Zentiva. Research sponsorship has also been received from grant awarding bodies (EPSRC and MRC). He owns 50 % of Inhalation Consultancy Ltd.
David B Price has Board Membership with Aerocrine, Almirall, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Meda, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis, and Teva. Consultancy: Almirall, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Meda, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis, Pfizer, Teva, and Zentiva; Grants/Grants Pending with UK National Health Service, British Lung Foundation, Aerocrine, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Meda, Merck, Mundipharma, Novartis, Orion, Pfizer, Respiratory Effectiveness Group, Takeda, Teva, and Zentiva; Payments for lectures/speaking: Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Cipla, GlaxoSmithKline, Kyorin, Meda, Merck, Mundipharma, Novartis, Pfizer, SkyePharma, Takeda, and Teva; Payment for manuscript preparation: Mundipharma and Teva; Patents (planned, pending or issued): AKL Ltd.; Payment for the development of educational materials: GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis; Stock/Stock options: Shares in AKL Ltd which produces phytopharmaceuticals and owns 80 % of Research in Real Life Ltd and its subsidiary social enterprise Optimum Patient Care; received Payment for travel/accommodations/meeting expenses from Aerocrine, Boehringer Ingelheim, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis, and Teva; Funding for patient enrolment or completion of research: Almirall, Chiesi, Teva, and Zentiva; Peer reviewer for grant committees: Medical Research Council (2014), Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme (2012), HTA (2014); and Received unrestricted funding for investigator-initiated studies from Aerocrine, AKL Ltd, Almirall, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Meda, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis, Orion, Takeda, Teva, and Zentiva.
Mathieu Molimard has Board Membership and Consultancy with Almirall, AstraZeneca, BMS, GlaxoSmithKline, Lundbeck, Mundipharma, Novartis Pharma, Otsuka, Pfizer, Stallergen, Zentiva; received payment for travel/accommodations/meeting expenses from Novartis Pharma.
John Haughney has received reimbursements for attending symposia, fees for speaking, organising educational events, funds for research or fees for consulting from Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Mundipharma, Novartis and Teva.
Sinthia Bosnic-Anticevich has received reimbursements for attending meetings, fees for speaking, or consultancy from Mundipharma and Teva.
Federico Lavorini has received reimbursements for attending meetings, fees for speaking, or consultancy from: AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Mundipharma, GSK and Zentiva.
John Efthimiou has received fees for consultancy or speaking from GlaxoSmithKline, Oxagen, Sanofi, 3 M Pharmaceuticals, Vectura, and Zentiva.
Dawn Shan, Erika Sims, Anne Burden, and Catherine Hutton are employees of Research in Real Life, which conducted this study and which has conducted paid research in respiratory disease on behalf of the following other organizations in the past 5 years: Aerocrine, AKL Ltd, Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Meda, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis, Orion, Takeda, Teva, and Zentiva.
Nicolas Roche has received over the past 3 years (i) fees for speaking, organising education, participation in advisory boards or consulting from 3M, Aerocrine, Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Cipla, GlaxoSmithKline, MSD-Chibret, Mundipharma, Novartis, Pfizer, Sandoz, Sanofi, Stallergenes, Takeda, Teva; (ii) research grants from Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer.
Authors’ contributions
HC, DBP, and ES led the study design process; DS is responsible for data collection; AB conducted the analyses. HC, DBP, MM, JH, SB-A, FL, JE, DS, ES, AB, CH, NR participated in the interpretation of the data, drafting and critical revision of the manuscript, and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.