Guarantees	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2012
Guarantees [Abstract]
Guarantees	Guarantees Guarantee of Lease Obligation of Others On April 30, 2004, we spun-off our drug discovery subsidiary, Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery, Inc. (“PDD”), into an independent, separately traded, publicly held company through the distribution to our stockholders of a dividend of one share of PDD common stock for every two shares of our common stock. The landlords of our New Jersey facilities, which were used by our PDD operations, consented to the assignment of the leases to PDD. Despite the assignment, the landlords required us to guarantee the remaining lease obligations, which totaled approximately $9.6 million as of June 30, 2012. In the event that PDD defaults on its lease commitment, we are permitted under the guarantee to sublease the facility in order to mitigate our lease obligation. In fiscal 2005, we recognized a liability and corresponding charge to stockholders’ equity for the probability-weighted fair value of the guarantee. Changes to the fair value of the liability are recognized in stockholders’ equity. The liability for our guarantee of the lease obligation was $0.3 million at June 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011. Other Guarantees and Indemnifications We provide indemnifications of varying scope and size to certain customers against claims of intellectual property infringement made by third parties arising from the use of our products. We have also entered into indemnification agreements with our officers and directors. Although the maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnifications is unlimited, to date we have not incurred material costs to defend lawsuits or settle claims related to these indemnification provisions. Additionally, we have insurance policies that, in most cases, would limit our exposure and enable us to recover a portion of any amounts paid. Therefore, we believe the estimated fair value of these agreements is minimal and the likelihood of incurring an obligation is remote. Accordingly, we have not accrued any liabilities in connection with these indemnification obligations as of June 30, 2012.

Guarantees

Guarantee of Lease Obligation of Others

On April 30, 2004, we spun-off our drug discovery subsidiary, Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery, Inc. (“PDD”), into an independent, separately traded, publicly held company through the distribution to our stockholders of a dividend of one share of PDD common stock for every two shares of our common stock. The landlords of our New Jersey facilities, which were used by our PDD operations, consented to the assignment of the leases to PDD. Despite the assignment, the landlords required us to guarantee the remaining lease obligations, which totaled approximately $9.6 million as of June 30, 2012. In the event that PDD defaults on its lease commitment, we are permitted under the guarantee to sublease the facility in order to mitigate our lease obligation. In fiscal 2005, we recognized a liability and corresponding charge to stockholders’ equity for the probability-weighted fair value of the guarantee. Changes to the fair value of the liability are recognized in stockholders’ equity. The liability for our guarantee of the lease obligation was $0.3 million at June 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011.

Other Guarantees and Indemnifications

We provide indemnifications of varying scope and size to certain customers against claims of intellectual property infringement made by third parties arising from the use of our products. We have also entered into indemnification agreements with our officers and directors. Although the maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnifications is unlimited, to date we have not incurred material costs to defend lawsuits or settle claims related to these indemnification provisions. Additionally, we have insurance policies that, in most cases, would limit our exposure and enable us to recover a portion of any amounts paid. Therefore, we believe the estimated fair value of these agreements is minimal and the likelihood of incurring an obligation is remote. Accordingly, we have not accrued any liabilities in connection with these indemnification obligations as of June 30, 2012.