About the Authors

Alvar Agustí

alvar.agusti@clinic.ub.es

Affiliations Thorax Institute, Hospital Clinic, Institut d’investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), University of Barcelona and Centro de investigación en red de enfermedades respiratorias (CIBERES), Barcelona, Spain, Fundación Investigación Sanitaria Illes Balears (FISIB), Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Lisa D. Edwards

Affiliation GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America

Stephen I. Rennard

Affiliation University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America

William MacNee

Affiliation University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Ruth Tal-Singer

Affiliation GlaxoSmithKline, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Bruce E. Miller

Affiliation GlaxoSmithKline, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Jørgen Vestbo

Affiliations Respiratory Section, Hvidovre Hospital/University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

David A. Lomas

Affiliation University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Peter M. A. Calverley

Affiliation University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

Emiel Wouters

Affiliation University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Courtney Crim

Affiliation GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America

Julie C. Yates

Affiliation GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America

Edwin K. Silverman

Affiliation Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Harvey O. Coxson

Affiliation University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Per Bakke

Affiliation University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

Ruth J. Mayer

Affiliation GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America

Bartolome Celli

Affiliation Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

for the Evaluation of COPD Longitudinally to Identify Predictive Surrogate Endpoints (ECLIPSE) Investigators

Competing Interests

BRC: Received consulting fees from Altana, AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline; speaking fees from Altana, AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline; and grant support from Boehringer-Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline. NL, JY, RT-S, BEM, CC, RJM and LDE: Full-time employees of GlaxoSmithKline and hold stock or stock options in GlaxoSmithKline. PB: Received lecture fees from AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and NycoMed; has participated in clinical research studies sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Boehringer-Ingelheim; is currently member of the Steering Committee and the Scientific Committee of the ECLIPSE study which is sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline PC: Received fees for serving on advisory boards for GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Nycomed, Novartis and Boehringer Ingelheim, for expert testimony for Forest/Nycomed, and has received speaker fees from GlaxoSmithKline and Nycomed; has received travel assistance from GlaxoSmithKline to attend ECLIPSE study meetings and from Boehringer Ingelheim to attend a scientific conference. HC: Received an honorarium for serving on the steering committee for the ECLIPSE project for GlaxoSmithKline; was the co-investigator on two multi-center studies sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline and has received travel expenses to attend meetings related to the project; has three contract service agreements with GlaxoSmithKline to quantify the CT scans in subjects with COPD and a service agreement with Spiration Inc to measure changes in lung volume in subjects with severe emphysema; was the co-investigator (D Sin PI) on a Canadian Institutes of Health – Industry (Wyeth) partnership grant; has received a fee for speaking at a conference and related travel expenses from AstraZeneca (Australia); was the recipient of a GSK Clinical Scientist Award (06/2010-07/2011). DAL: Received grant support, honoraria and consultancy fees from GlaxoSmithKline. WM: Received travel assistance from GlaxoSmithKline to attend ECLIPSE study meetings. SR: Received fees for serving on advisory boards, consulting or honoraria from Almirall, APT Pharma, Aradigm, Argenta, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Dey, Forest, GlaxoSmitkKlein, HoffmanLaRoche, MedImmune, Mpex, Novartis, Nycomed, Oriel, Otsuka, Pearl, Pfizer, Pharmaxis, Merck and Talecris. ES: Received an honorarium for a talk on COPD genetics, grant support for two studies of COPD genetics, and consulting fees from GlaxoSmithKline; honoraria for talks and consulting fees from AstraZeneca. JV: Received fees for serving on advisory boards for GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Nycomed and Boehringer Ingelheim, and has received speaker fees from GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Chiesi, Novartis and Nycomed; has received travel assistance from GlaxoSmithKline to attend ECLIPSE study meetings; his wife has previously worked in pharmaceutical companies, including GSK and AstraZeneca. EW: Serves on an advisory board for Nycomed; has received lecture fees from GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Novartis, and has received research grants from GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca. AA: Received travel assistance from GlaxoSmithKline to attend ECLIPSE study meetings and honorarium for speaking at conferences and participating in advisory boards from Almirall, Astra-Zeneca, Boheringer-Ingelheim, Chiesi, Esteve, GSK, Medimmune, Novartis, Nycomed, Pfizer, Roche and Procter & Gamble.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AA LDE SIR WM RT-S BEM JV DAL PMAC EW CC JCY EKS HOC PB RJM BC. Performed the experiments: AA SIR WM JV DAL PMAC EW EKS HOC PB BC. Analyzed the data: AA LDE SIR WM RT-S BEM JV DAL PMAC EW CC JCY EKS HOC PB RJM BC. Wrote the paper: AA LDE SIR WM RT-S BEM JV DAL PMAC EW CC JCY EKS HOC PB RJM BC.