Segmented Information (Details 2) (Chinese government)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010
H1N1 vaccines
Company's revenues by product
Percentage of total product sales sold to major customer	0.00%	24.60%	21.50%
H5N1 vaccines
Company's revenues by product
Percentage of total product sales sold to major customer	0.00%	13.70%	7.20%

Percentage of revenue generated from a single external customer that accounts for 10 percent or more of an entity's revenues.

No definition available.

Name:	us-gaap_EntityWideRevenueMajorCustomerPercentage
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration