OBJECTIVES:   Spiriva® Handihaler® (tiotropium) is a single capsule dry powder inhaler (DPI) for the treatment of COPD. A budget impact model was developed to assess the potential economic impact of introducing a new inhaler with patient-preferred features compared to Spiriva® Handihaler® to treat COPD in the UK. The potential cost benefit of increasing treatment satisfaction due to the patient-preferred features of this new inhaler was investigated. METHODS:  The eligible patient population presented was based on the number of confirmed COPD diagnoses in the UK, with the proportion of patients receiving Spiriva® Handihaler® based on market research data.  The costs of scheduled and unscheduled healthcare events presented within the model were taken from publically available UK sources. Findings from a multinational, cross-sectional, real-world survey of 1,443 COPD patients associating inhaler attributes, inhaler satisfaction, adherence and patient health status were used within the model to determine the correlations between inhaler satisfaction, treatment adherence and unscheduled healthcare events. Using these correlations, an annual number of UK unscheduled healthcare events associated with COPD was calculated for patients using the new inhaler and Spiriva® Handihaler®.  RESULTS: By using the model it was estimated that there are 902,445 patients with COPD in the UK, 159,082 of who are Spiriva® HandiHaler® users. The annual UK costs of treating a COPD patient for unscheduled healthcare events were £1,027.05 with Spiriva® Handihaler® vs. £922.14 with the new inhaler. Potential budgetary savings achieved by using a new inhaler with patient-preferred features instead of Handihaler® were calculated at £104.91 per patient and a maximum of £16.69 million for the UK COPD patient population per year. CONCLUSIONS:  A new tiotropium inhaler with patient-preferred features has the potential to offer budgetary savings compared with Spiriva® Handihaler® resulting from cost benefits due to increased patient satisfaction with their inhaler.