Bacon 2011a2

Methods	For characteristics see Bacon 2011a1
Participants
Interventions
Outcomes
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Computer‐generated random sequence
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Allocation of participants through interactive voice‐response system in a 1:2:2 ratio
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	A boceprevir‐matched placebo was used.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	It was not mentioned if the outcome assessors were blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Treatment discontinuation due to AE was 2% to 12%. Seems no other drop‐outs occurred.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	A study protocol was published prior to randomisation (NCT00708500). All pre‐specified outcomes were reported on.
Vested‐interest bias	High risk	Trial was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company (Schering‐Plough/Merck). The company was directly involved in trial design and managing, data analysis, and writing of article.
Other bias	Low risk	Seems there were no other potential sources of bias.