Study of Indacaterol Dosed in the Evening in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Inclusion criteria: * Male and female adults aged ≥ 40 years, who have signed an Informed Consent Form prior to initiation of any study-related procedure * Co-operative outpatients with a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (moderate to severe as classified by the Global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) Guidelines, 2006) and: * Smoking history of at least 20 pack years * Post-bronchodilator FEV1 \< 80% and ≥30% of the predicted normal value * Post-bronchodilator FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC) \< 70% Exclusion criteria: * Pregnant or lactating females * Patients who have been hospitalized for a COPD exacerbation in the 6 weeks prior to Visit 1 or during the run-in period * Patients requiring long term oxygen therapy (\>15 h a day) * Patient who have had a respiratory tract infection 6 weeks prior to V2 (with further criteria) * Patients with concomitant pulmonary disease, pulmonary tuberculosis, or clinically significant bronchiectasis * Patients with history of asthma (with further criteria) * Patients with Type I or uncontrolled type II diabetes. * Patients who have clinically relevant laboratory abnormalities or a clinically significant abnormality * Any patient with active cancer or a history of cancer with less than 5 years disease free survival time * Patient with a history with long QT syndrome or whose QTc interval is prolonged * Patients with a hypersensitivity to any of the study drugs or drugs with similar chemical structure * Patients who have had treatment with an investigational drug (with further criteria) * Patients who have had live attenuated vaccination within 30 days prior to Visit 2, or during run-in period * Patients with known history of non compliance to medication * Patients unable to satisfactorily use a dry powder inhaler device or perform spirometry measurements Other protocol-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria may apply