Financing arrangements (Term Loan) (Details) - Term loan due 2018 [Member] - USD ($)		12 Months Ended
Oct. 01, 2013	Dec. 31, 2015
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Loans payable to bank, noncurrent	$ 5,000,000,000
Debt instrument, periodic payment, principal		$ 125,000,000
LIBOR [Member]
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Basis spread on variable rate	1.00%

Percentage points added to the reference rate to compute the variable rate on the debt instrument.

No definition available.

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentBasisSpreadOnVariableRate1
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of the required periodic payments applied to principal.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentPeriodicPaymentPrincipal
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Carrying value as of the balance sheet date of loans from a bank with maturities initially due after one year or beyond the operating cycle if longer, excluding current portion.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.22)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher SEC
-Name Regulation S-X (SX)
-Number 210
-Section 02
-Paragraph 19, 22
-Article 5

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_LongTermLoansFromBank
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=amgn_TermLoanDue2018Member
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_VariableRateAxis=us-gaap_LondonInterbankOfferedRateLIBORMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: