About the Authors

Gillian C. Hall

gillian_hall@gchall.demon.co.uk

Affiliation Grimsdyke House, London, United Kingdom

Alex D. McMahon

Affiliation Reader in Epidemiology, University of Glasgow Dental School, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Dawn Carroll

Affiliation Sanofi-aventis Ltd, Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom

Philip D. Home

Affiliation Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have reported the following competing interests: GCH has received funding for research or payment for consultancy from a number of pharmaceutical companies (Sanofi, Pfizer UK, Merck, Sharp and Dohme, Dance Pharmaceuticals, Lundbeck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Shire and Lilly) and from charities and has no direct stock holding in any pharmaceutical company. DC was an employee of Sanofi-Aventis at the time of the study and Sanofi-Aventis funded this study and is currently employed by Pfizer, UK. ADM has no conflict of interest to declare. PDH or institutions with which he is associated receive funding from most major pharmaceutical companies including manufacturers of insulin and oral agents (Boeringher Ingelheim, BMS/Astrazeneca Alliance, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Groupe Serveir, Merck Inc, Merck Serono, MannKind, Novartis, Novo Nordisk. Pfizer Inc. Sanofi, SkyePharma, Takeda, Xoma Inc). There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GCH ADM PDH DC. Performed the experiments: GCH. Analyzed the data: GCH ADM. Wrote the paper: GCH ADM PDH DC.