Nature of Business

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Nature of Business

Nature of Business

The Medicines Company (the Company) is a global pharmaceutical company focused on advancing the treatment of critical care patients through the delivery of innovative, cost-effective medicines to the worldwide hospital marketplace. The Company has two marketed products, Angiomax^® (bivalirudin) and Cleviprex^® (clevidipine butyrate) injectable emulsion, and a pipeline of acute and intensive care hospital products in development, including three late-stage development product candidates, cangrelor, oritavancin and a novel intravenous formulation of clopidogrel bisulfate that the Company licensed from Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated in June 2011, and two early stage development product candidates, MDCO-2010 (formerly known as CU2010) and MDCO-216 (formerly known as ApoA-I Milano). In addition, the Company has marketing rights in the United States and Canada to a ready-to-use formulation of Argatroban, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on June 29, 2011 for prophylaxis or treatment of thrombosis in adult patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) and for use as an anticoagulant in adult patients with or at risk for HIT undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The Company expects to launch the ready-to-use formulation of Argatroban in the second half of 2011. The Company believes that its marketed products and its products in development possess favorable attributes that competitive products do not provide, can satisfy unmet medical needs in the acute and intensive care hospital product market and offer, or, in the case of the Company's products in development, have the potential to offer, improved performance to hospital businesses.