The aim of pharmacological treatment of COPD is best possible disease control. Bronchodilators are accepted as the mainstay of COPD therapy. This short review focuses on the available data on indacaterol - a new once-daily beta2-agonist. The analysed studies show that indacaterol has clinically important effects on quality of life, dyspnoea, level of FEV1, hyperinflation, and exacerbation rate in patients with COPD. Indacaterol is therefore in the near future expected to be an important part of maintenance therapy for patients with COPD.