Characteristic	Derosa 2004	Derosa 2006a	Derosa 2006b
	I1: rosiglitazone 4 mg + glimepiride 4 mg C1: pioglitazone 15 mg + glimepiride 4 mg	I1: rosiglitazone 4 mg + metformin 3000 mg C1: pioglitazone 15 mg + metformin 3000mg	I1: rosiglitazone 4 mg + metformin 1500 mg C1: glimepiride 2 mg+ metformin 1500 mg
Sex [%]	I1: female 48; male 52 C1: female 53; male 447	I1: female 48; male 52 C1: female 50; male 50	I1: female 48; male 52 C1: female 51; male 49
Age [years], mean (SD)	I1: 54 (5) C1: 53 (6)	I1: 56 (4) C1: 55 (5)	I1: 54 (4) C1: 52 (5)
Ethnic groups [%]	I1: white 100 C1: white 100	I1: caucasians 100 C1: caucasians 100	?
Duration of disease [years], mean (SD)	I1: 6 (3) C1: 5 (2)	I1: 5(4) C1: 6(4)	I1: 5 (3) C1: 4 (3)
Body mass index [kg/m2], mean (SD)	I1: 24.3 (0.7) C1: 24.4 (0.8)	I1: 26.4 (1.4) C1: 26.9 (1.2)	I1: 26.6 (1.3) C1: 26.8 (1.5)
Pharmaco‐naive patients [%]	I1: none C1: none	I1: none C1: none	I1: none C1: none
HbA1c [%], mean (SD)	I1: 8.0 (0.8) C1: 8.2 (0.7)	I1: 8.1 (0.9) C1: 8.2 (0.8)	I1: 8.0 (0.7) C1: 7.9 (0.6)
Co‐morbidities [%]	?	?	I1: hypertension 42 C1: hypertension 47
Notes	patients who completed the study	./.	./.
Footnotes ? = unclear; I = intervention; C = control; SD = standard deviation; SE = standard error; ITT = intention‐to ‐treat