Gerard Criner, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Temple, collaborated on a national study, out in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that adding the antibiotic azithromycin to regular medications can help patients with COPD reduce flare-ups by up to 20 percent. Criner says the reason why the antibiotic works isn't clear, but a number of factors could be at play. "[Flare ups] are serious, they're difficult to treat. So anything that we could do to prevent this would be a tremendous benefit to the patients," said Criner.