Collaborative Arrangements and Licensing Agreements, PTC Therapeutics (Details)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2021
PTC Therapeutics [Member]
Collaborative Arrangement and Licensing Agreement [Abstract]
Royalty percentage received on net sales of each medicine from PTC	20.00%

Royalty percentage received on the net sales of each medicine from the collaboration partner under the collaboration agreement.

No definition available.

Name:	ions_RoyaltyPercentageReceivedOnNetSalesOfEachMedicineFromCollaborationPartner
Namespace Prefix:	ions_
Data Type:	dtr-types:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration