Breathing new life into lung health policy: A call to action to deliver on the WHO Lung Health Resolution and improve outcomes for people with Pulmonary Fibrosis
Executive summary
Lung diseases represent one of the world’s most significant health challenges. Chronic respiratory conditions killed 17 million people in 2021 — a burden that is, in the words of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, ‘huge and largely unrecognised.’4
The impact from lung diseases is growing rapidly. COPD cases are projected to rise by 23% worldwide between 2020 and 2050, from 480 million to 592 million people.5 Lung cancer incidence and mortality are expected to rise to at least 4.62 million new cases and 3.55 million deaths per year by 2050.6
The drivers of this trajectory are well understood. Air pollution contributes to seven million deaths annually and exacerbates respiratory diseases — and its impact is extending rather than contracting in many parts of the world.7 Tobacco use, while declining in high-income countries, continues to rise in parts of the Global South. Occupational exposures — to dust, chemicals and toxins — remain poorly regulated across large parts of the global economy. Demographic change is also important: as populations age, the incidence of progressive lung conditions increases, along with deaths and disability-adjusted life years.8
The financial cost to health systems and economies is substantial, and falls disproportionately on the countries least equipped to bear it. COPD alone is projected to cost the global economy over $4.3 trillion between 2020 and 2050 — with low- and middle-income countries absorbing over half of these costs.9 Such data capture only part of the true toll: in lower-resource settings, chronic lung conditions drive severe work productivity and activity impairment, including indirect costs — from premature mortality, workforce exit, and lost output — with middle-income countries bearing the highest economic burden as a share of GDP.10 11
The result is a compounding challenge — more people at risk, more cases, more deaths, more costs — which is all outpacing health system capacity.
PF — and its most prevalent form, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) — is a progressive, irreversible scarring of the lungs for which no cure exists. It is a condition whose public health significance is systematically understated, and whose patients bear a mortality burden comparable to the most aggressive cancers. Incidence and mortality are both rising.12 13 Global Burden of Disease analysis projects that crude death rates from interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) — chronic lung disorders that cause inflammation and scarring of the lung tissue including IPF — will increase by approximately 83% by 2050, driven primarily by ageing.14
The prognosis for patients diagnosed with IPF remains stark. Median survival after diagnosis is 2.5 to 5 years, comparable to — and in some presentations worse than — many malignant tumours.15 16 Available treatments, including antifibrotic agents, can slow functional decline but do not reverse fibrosis or restore lost lung capacity, and access to these therapies remains limited across much of the world.17 The consequence is that for millions of patients globally, a diagnosis of PF is effectively a sentence of progressive respiratory decline and early death, with no cure and limited systemic support.
With rising incidence and mortality, action on PF now needs to be locked into the
global health response to improving lung health.
The adoption of resolution WHA78.5 — ‘Promoting and prioritizing an integrated lung health approach’ — by the 78th WHA in May 2025 represents the most significant advance in global lung health governance in a generation.18 It is the first WHA resolution to address the full spectrum of respiratory diseases under a single integrated framework.19
The resolution calls on Member States to develop or strengthen national strategies addressing both communicable and non-communicable lung diseases, with primary care as the principal point of entry, and for Member States to align work across departments to support integrated implementation. With only 19 countries currently on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing premature NCD mortality by one third by 2030, the resolution arrives at an important time — providing both a political mandate and a practical policy architecture for expanded action.20
For PF the resolution creates a clear opportunity for action. The resolution’s invitation to Member States to map their lung health priorities and develop integrated plans is an opening to ensure that PF is explicitly named, resourced, and tracked within national lung health plans.21
The resolution comes at a time of change in PF care and treatment. Investment in research is unlocking potential new treatments, innovative technologies are supporting faster diagnosis, and there are evolving models of care and pathways being developed that can deliver more co-ordinated care and improved quality of life for patients.
This research report sets out a four part framework for how countries can utilise the resolution on lung health to integrate action on PF into their response through:
- Enhancing prevention and increasing awareness amongst healthcare professionals and the public
- Ensuring the earlier diagnosis of the condition
- Delivering more co-ordinated and integrated care for patients
- Investing in research and unlocking access to new innovative treatments
In taking action across this framework countries can ensure that the resolution delivers improved clinical outcomes and quality of life for patients with PF and their families.
Conclusion
The WHO’s Lung Health Resolution presents a clear opportunity for new action and progress to improve global lung health and patient outcomes. For the first time PF is included within such a global health resolution and with the prevalence of the condition increasing, the devastating associated personal and family impacts of the disease and wider associated health system and economic costs there is a chance for governments and policymakers to use the resolution to make a decisive intervention.
The four part framework in this research paper aims to support countries in taking such action. By enhancing prevention and increasing public and health professional awareness, accelerating rates of earlier diagnosis, building new models of care and investing in research and unlocking access to new treatments, outcomes for patients with PF and their families around the world will improve.
4 Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS). FIRS Hails World Health Assembly Resolution as Turning Point for Lung Health. June 2025. Available from: https://firsnet.org/firs-hails-world-health-assembly-resolution-as-turning-point-for-lung-health Accessed March 2026
5 Boers et al. Forecasting the Global Economic and Health Burden of COPD From 2025 Through 2050. 2025. Available from: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12597441 Accessed March 2026
6 Zhou et al. Global burden of lung cancer in 2022 and projections to 2050: Incidence and mortality estimates from GLOBOCAN. 2024. Available from:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877782124001723
Accessed March 2026
7 Ghebreyesus TA and Castro JL. The silent killer: why chronic respiratory disease deserves global attention. World Health Organization Commentary. November 2024. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/the-silent-killer–why-chronic-respiratory-diseasedeserves-global-attention Accessed March 2026
8 Hutchinson J et al. Global incidence and mortality of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a systematic review. European Respiratory Journal. 2015. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.00185114 Accessed March 2026
9 Chen at al. The global economic burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for 204 countries and territories in 2020–50: a health-augmented macroeconomic modelling study. 2023. Available from: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(23)00217-6/fulltext
Accessed March 2026
10 Brakema et al. The socioeconomic burden of chronic lung disease in low-resource settings across the globe – an observational FRESH AIR study. 2019. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338106633_The_socioeconomic_burden_of_chronic_lung_disease_in_low-resource_settings_across_the_globe_-_An_observational_FRESH_AIR_study Accessed March 2026
11 Chen at al. The global economic burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for 204 countries and territories in 2020–50: a health-augmented macroeconomic modelling study. 2023. Available from: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(23)00217-6/fulltext
Accessed March 2026
12 Hutchinson J et al. Global incidence and mortality of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a systematic review. 2015. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.00185114 Accessed March 2026
13 Harada et al. Global trends in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis mortality rates during 2001–2022. December 2025. Available from: https://publications.ersnet.org/content/erjor/11/6/00362-2025 Accessed March 2026
14 Zhou et al. Global, regional, and national burden of interstitial lung diseases and pulmonary sarcoidosis from 2000 to 2021: a systematic analysis of incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years. 2025. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1578480 Accessed March 2026
15 Ley B et al. Clinical Course and Prediction of Survival in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2011. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201006-0894CI Accessed March 2026
16 Zhang et al. Pathogenesis and current status of the treatment of lung cancer associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. 2025. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12931-025-03294-7 Accessed March 2026
17 Maher et al. Unmet needs in the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis insights from patient chart review in five European countries. 2017. Available from: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5602932/ Accessed October 2025
18 Knowledge Action Portal on NCDs. Lung Health Resolution Adopted by 78th World Health Assembly. 2025. Available from: https://www.knowledge-action-portal.com/en/content/lung-health-resolution-adopted-78th-world-health-assembly Accessed March 2026
19 Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). 5 Key Outcomes from the 78th World Health Assembly. May 2025. Available from: https://www.uicc.org/news-and-updates/announcements/25-5-key-outcomes-78th-world-health-assembly Accessed March 2026
20 Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS). FIRS Hails World Health Assembly Resolution as Turning Point for Lung Health. June 2025. Available from: https://firsnet.org/firs-hails-world-health-assembly-resolution-as-turning-point-for-lung-health/ Accessed March 2026
21 World Health Organisation. Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly Daily
Update. May 2025. Available from: https://www.who.int/news/item/23-05-2025-seventy-eighth-world-health-assembly—daily-update–23-may-2025 Accessed March 2026
This independent report was commissioned and funded by Boehringer Ingelheim in partnership with Future Health. Boehringer Ingelheim provided guidance throughout the project; however, full editorial control rests with Future Health.
GB material number: NP-GB-106968. Date of preparation: April 2026.