Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a highly disabling group of conditions including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), acute and chronic interstitial pneumonias, connective tissue diseases and sarcoidosis. People with ILD frequently experience breathlessness on exertion, which limits their ability to undertake daily activities and reduces health-related quality of life.Available treatments for ILD have proved largely ineffective, offering no improvement in survival and demonstrating only limited impact on quality of life.