Organization and Business Operations	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Organization and Business Operations	Note 1 – organization and business operations Reverse Merger with IThenaPharma On November 15, 2016, Marina entered into, and consummated the transactions contemplated by, an Agreement and Plan of Merger between and among IthenaPharma, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“IThena”), IThena Acquisition Corporation, a Delaware corporation and wholly-owned subsidiary of Marina (“Merger Sub”), and Vuong Trieu as the IThena representative (the “Merger Agreement”), pursuant to which IThena merged into Merger Sub (the “Merger”). For a more detailed discussion on the reverse merger, refer to Note 3 – Intangible Assets below. IThena is a developer of personalized therapies for combined pain/hypertension through its proprietary Fixed Dose Combination (“FDC”) technology and point of care Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (“TDM”). Through the combination of these technologies, IThenaPharma is looking to deliver therapies with improved compliance and personalized dosing. IThena’s lead products are the celecoxib FDCs which include IT-102 and IT-103, fixed dose combinations of celecoxib and lisinopril and celecoxib and olmesartan, respectively. IT-102 and IT-103 are being developed as celecoxib without the drug induced edema associated with celecoxib alone. IT-102 and IT-103 are being developed initially for combined arthritis / hypertension and subsequently for treatment of pain, or cancer, or other indications requiring high doses of celecoxib. Business Operations Marina Biotech, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, MDRNA Research, Inc., Cequent Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Atossa Healthcare, Inc., and IthenaPharma, Inc. (collectively “Marina,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) is a fully integrated, commercial stage biopharmaceutical company delivering proprietary drug therapeutics for significant unmet medical needs in the U.S., Europe and certain additional international markets. Its portfolio of products currently focuses on FDCs in hypertension, arthritis, pain and oncology allowing for innovative solutions to such unmet medical needs. Its mission is to provide effective and patient centric treatment for hypertension – including resistant hypertension. In this connection, we acquired from Symplmed and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Symplmed Technologies, LLC, certain of the intellectual property assets related to the patented technology platform known as DyrctAxess, also called Total Care, that offers enhanced efficiency, control and information to empower patients, physicians and manufacturers to help achieve optimal care. In doing so, we have created a universal platform for the effective treatment of hypertension as well as for the distribution of FDC hypertensive drugs, such as our FDA-approved product Prestalia, and the other products in our pipeline, devices for therapeutic drug monitoring, blood pressure, and other cardiac monitors, as well as services such as counseling and prescription reminders. We currently have one commercial and three clinical development programs underway: (i) Prestalia®, a single-pill FDC of perindopril, an angiotensin-converting-enzyme (“ACE”) inhibitor and amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker (“CCB”), which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and is actively marketed in the U.S.; (ii) our next generation celecoxib program drug candidates for the treatment of acute and chronic pain, IT-102 and IT-103, each of which is an FDC of celecoxib, a COX-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (“NSAID”) and either lisinopril (IT-102) or olmesartan (IT-103) – both Lisinopril and olmesartan are antihypertension drugs; (iii) CEQ508, an oral delivery of small interfering RNA (“siRNA”) against beta-catenin, combined with IT-102 to suppress polyps in the precancerous syndrome and orphan indication Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (“FAP”); and (iv) CEQ508 combined with IT-103 to treat Colorectal Cancer. Our current focus is primarily on the commercialization of Prestalia. The development of IT-102 and IT-103 will be achieved through partnering with other entities or raising additional funds to advance the development of the products. We believe that by combining a COX-2 inhibitor with an antihypertensive in a single FDC oral tablet, IT-102 and IT-103 will each offer improved safety profiles as compared to currently available and previously marketed COX-2 inhibitors as well as address patients with chronic pain who are commonly taking antihypertension drugs concurrently. We further believe that the current opioid addiction epidemic in the U.S. has been driven in part by the withdrawal from the market of certain COX-2 inhibitors due to their associated risk of cardiovascular-related adverse events. We plan to license or divest our other assets since they no longer align with our focus on the treatment of hypertension. We intend to create value through the continued commercialization of our FDA-approved product, Prestalia, while moving our FDC development programs forward to further strengthen our commercial presence. We intend to retain ownership and control of all of our product candidates, but in the interest of accelerated growth and market penetration, we will also consider partnerships with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies in order to reduce time to market and to balance development risks, both clinically and financially. As our strategy is to be a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company, we will drive a primary corporate focus on revenue generation through our commercial assets, with a secondary focus on advancing our FDC pipeline to further enhance our commercial presence.

Organization and Business Operations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Note 1 – organization and business operations

Reverse Merger with IThenaPharma

On November 15, 2016, Marina entered into, and consummated the transactions contemplated by, an Agreement and Plan of Merger between and among IthenaPharma, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“IThena”), IThena Acquisition Corporation, a Delaware corporation and wholly-owned subsidiary of Marina (“Merger Sub”), and Vuong Trieu as the IThena representative (the “Merger Agreement”), pursuant to which IThena merged into Merger Sub (the “Merger”). For a more detailed discussion on the reverse merger, refer to Note 3 – Intangible Assets below.

IThena is a developer of personalized therapies for combined pain/hypertension through its proprietary Fixed Dose Combination (“FDC”) technology and point of care Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (“TDM”). Through the combination of these technologies, IThenaPharma is looking to deliver therapies with improved compliance and personalized dosing. IThena’s lead products are the celecoxib FDCs which include IT-102 and IT-103, fixed dose combinations of celecoxib and lisinopril and celecoxib and olmesartan, respectively. IT-102 and IT-103 are being developed as celecoxib without the drug induced edema associated with celecoxib alone. IT-102 and IT-103 are being developed initially for combined arthritis / hypertension and subsequently for treatment of pain, or cancer, or other indications requiring high doses of celecoxib.

Business Operations

Marina Biotech, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, MDRNA Research, Inc., Cequent Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Atossa Healthcare, Inc., and IthenaPharma, Inc. (collectively “Marina,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) is a fully integrated, commercial stage biopharmaceutical company delivering proprietary drug therapeutics for significant unmet medical needs in the U.S., Europe and certain additional international markets. Its portfolio of products currently focuses on FDCs in hypertension, arthritis, pain and oncology allowing for innovative solutions to such unmet medical needs. Its mission is to provide effective and patient centric treatment for hypertension – including resistant hypertension. In this connection, we acquired from Symplmed and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Symplmed Technologies, LLC, certain of the intellectual property assets related to the patented technology platform known as DyrctAxess, also called Total Care, that offers enhanced efficiency, control and information to empower patients, physicians and manufacturers to help achieve optimal care.

In doing so, we have created a universal platform for the effective treatment of hypertension as well as for the distribution of FDC hypertensive drugs, such as our FDA-approved product Prestalia, and the other products in our pipeline, devices for therapeutic drug monitoring, blood pressure, and other cardiac monitors, as well as services such as counseling and prescription reminders.

We currently have one commercial and three clinical development programs underway: (i) Prestalia®, a single-pill FDC of perindopril, an angiotensin-converting-enzyme (“ACE”) inhibitor and amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker (“CCB”), which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and is actively marketed in the U.S.; (ii) our next generation celecoxib program drug candidates for the treatment of acute and chronic pain, IT-102 and IT-103, each of which is an FDC of celecoxib, a COX-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (“NSAID”) and either lisinopril (IT-102) or olmesartan (IT-103) – both Lisinopril and olmesartan are antihypertension drugs; (iii) CEQ508, an oral delivery of small interfering RNA (“siRNA”) against beta-catenin, combined with IT-102 to suppress polyps in the precancerous syndrome and orphan indication Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (“FAP”); and (iv) CEQ508 combined with IT-103 to treat Colorectal Cancer.

Our current focus is primarily on the commercialization of Prestalia. The development of IT-102 and IT-103 will be achieved through partnering with other entities or raising additional funds to advance the development of the products. We believe that by combining a COX-2 inhibitor with an antihypertensive in a single FDC oral tablet, IT-102 and IT-103 will each offer improved safety profiles as compared to currently available and previously marketed COX-2 inhibitors as well as address patients with chronic pain who are commonly taking antihypertension drugs concurrently. We further believe that the current opioid addiction epidemic in the U.S. has been driven in part by the withdrawal from the market of certain COX-2 inhibitors due to their associated risk of cardiovascular-related adverse events. We plan to license or divest our other assets since they no longer align with our focus on the treatment of hypertension.

We intend to create value through the continued commercialization of our FDA-approved product, Prestalia, while moving our FDC development programs forward to further strengthen our commercial presence. We intend to retain ownership and control of all of our product candidates, but in the interest of accelerated growth and market penetration, we will also consider partnerships with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies in order to reduce time to market and to balance development risks, both clinically and financially.

As our strategy is to be a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company, we will drive a primary corporate focus on revenue generation through our commercial assets, with a secondary focus on advancing our FDC pipeline to further enhance our commercial presence.