Footnotes

• Funding This correspondence was supported by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No 261357 (MeDALL).

• Contributors Dear Doctor Bush, We have read with great interest the recent paper of Krauss–Etschmann et al published in Thorax this month. We would like to make the following very positive comments for future collaboration. Best regards. JB.

• Competing interests JB has received honoraria for participation in scientific and advisory boards, giving lectures, and press engagements from Actelion, Almirall, AstraZeneca, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Meda, Merck, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Novartis, oM Pharma, Sanofi-Aventis, Schering Plough, Stallergènes, Takeda, Teva and Uriach. TK has received research support from the European Union (EU) and DTG. DSP has received, for the University of Groningen, funding for research from Chiesi and AstraZeneca, and also for consultancies and/or lecturing at international meetings from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GSK, Nycomed and TEVA.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.