Contingencies and Environmental Liabilities - Fosamax Product Liability Litigation - Textual (Detail) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified							1 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012 Fosamax Bellwether Trials LegalMatter	Feb. 28, 2011 Fosamax Bellwether Trials LegalMatter	Sep. 30, 2012 Fosamax [Member] Plaintiff LegalMatter	Sep. 30, 2012 Fosamax [Member] Femur Fracture [Member] LegalMatter	Sep. 30, 2012 Fosamax [Member] Cases Alleging ONJ [Member] LegalMatter	Sep. 30, 2012 Other State Court [Member] Fosamax [Member] Femur Fracture [Member] LegalMatter	Oct. 31, 2010 Federal [Member] Fosamax [Member] ONJ MDL [Member]	Jun. 30, 2010 Federal [Member] Fosamax [Member] ONJ MDL [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Federal [Member] Fosamax [Member] ONJ MDL [Member] LegalMatter	Sep. 30, 2012 New Jersey state court [Member] Fosamax [Member] Femur Fracture [Member] LegalMatter	Sep. 30, 2012 New Jersey state court [Member] Fosamax [Member] Cases Alleging ONJ [Member] LegalMatter	Sep. 30, 2012 California State Court [Member] Fosamax [Member] Femur Fracture [Member] LegalMatter	Sep. 30, 2012 Federal MDL [Member] Fosamax [Member] Femur Fracture [Member] LegalMatter
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Loss contingency, pending claims number	4	2	4,005	2,785	1,215	9			955	1,740	255	380	640
Number of plaintiff groups			4,580
Verdict amount in favor of the plaintiff								$ 8
Reduced verdict amount							$ 1.5
Initial number of cases selected for review										30			40
Subsequent number of cases selected for review													33