The burden of exacerbations on the health care system is substantial [1,3,177,210]. For patients with COPD in the United States, the average annual health care costs associated with their condition was estimated to be USD 9981; meanwhile, the average cost to society was USD 30,826 per patient [211]. Similarly, CF exacerbations were demonstrated to cost Medicaid on average between USD 44,589 and USD 116,169 annually with the costs increasing with the age of patients [2]. Another study found that the average cost per episode of all CF exacerbations was USD 12,784 [176]. As such, investigating new methods to prevent recurrent exacerbations is necessary to lower the burden on the health care system while improving the quality of life for patients with chronic pulmonary conditions. The potential of autophagy augmenting therapeutics to correct CFTR-autophagy dysfunction and resulting exacerbations provides a possible solution to this issue (Figure 2).