The treatment modalities are determined by the treatment in the blinded trial in which every patient was included previously as BI 1356 in monotherapy (patients in 1218.16 trial), BI 1356 in combination with pioglitazone (patients in 1218.15 trial), BI 1356 added to metformin background (patients in 1218.17 trial) or BI 1356 added to a background therapy of metformin in combination with a sulphonylurea (patients in 1218.18 study)