Patients with type 2 diabetes ages 20–69 years were eligible if they were either not on treatment with an oral antihyperglycemic agent (OHA) or only on a single OHA over the 8 weeks prior to screening. After a diet and exercise run-in period (and drug washout period for patients who had been on an OHA) of 8 weeks in duration (including a 2-week placebo lead-in period) prior to randomization, patients with an HbA1c of ≥6.5% to 1.3 mg/dL in men and >1.2 mg/dL in women), and elevations >2-fold the upper limit of normal (ULN) in either alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), or creatine phosphokinase (CPK).
All patients gave written informed consent. The protocol was approved by the institutional review board for each study site, and the study was conducted in compliance with ethical principles derived from the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was performed from 16-June-2004 to 25-April-2005