Selected Quarterly Financial Data (Schedule Of Selected Quarterly Financial Data) (Details) (USD $)	3 Months Ended														9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Sep. 30, 2012		Jun. 30, 2012		Mar. 31, 2012		Dec. 31, 2011		Sep. 30, 2011		Jun. 30, 2011		Mar. 31, 2011	Sep. 30, 2012	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011		Dec. 31, 2010
Product sales	$ 24,587,000	$ 32,137,000	[1]	$ 33,284,000	[2]	$ 33,163,000	[3]	$ 31,772,000	[4],[5]	$ 32,310,000	[6]	$ 26,207,000	[7],[8]	$ 21,662,000		$ 123,171,000	$ 111,951,000	[9]	$ 85,112,000
Promotion services	8,552,000	8,556,000	[1]	8,085,000	[2]	7,905,000	[3]	7,903,000	[4]	6,992,000	[6]	5,719,000	[7],[8]			33,098,000	20,614,000
Cost of product sales	5,326,000	5,474,000	[1]	5,664,000	[2]	5,532,000	[3]	5,839,000	[4],[5]	6,262,000	[6]	4,205,000	[7],[8]	3,103,000		21,996,000	19,409,000	[9]	12,691,000
Net income	1,888,000	(13,161,000)	[1],[10]	11,228,000	[2]	9,665,000	[3]	11,550,000	[4],[5]	10,832,000	[6]	1,891,000	[7],[8]	3,849,000		9,620,000	28,122,000		21,081,000
Basic net income per share	$ 0.03	$ (0.23)	[1]	$ 0.20	[2]	$ 0.17	[3]	$ 0.20	[4],[5]	$ 0.19	[6]	$ 0.03	[7],[8]	$ 0.08		$ 0.17	$ 0.51		$ 0.44
Diluted net income per share	$ 0.03	$ (0.23)	[1]	$ 0.19	[2]	$ 0.16	[3]	$ 0.19	[4],[5]	$ 0.18	[6]	$ 0.03	[7],[8]	$ 0.08		$ 0.16	$ 0.49		$ 0.43
Goodwill and Intangible Asset Impairment																42,728,000
Impairment of intangible asset		42,700,000
Deferred income tax benefit		6,800,000														(6,794,000)	(1,585,000)
Non cash gain due to decrease in achieving targets		12,800,000														15,422,000	3,495,000
Restatement of revenue		7,000		1,100,000		1,900,000		(1,800,000)		1,900,000		(1,200,000)			3,000,000		(1,100,000)
Restatement of cost of product sales		1,000		400,000		600,000		(900,000)		1,200,000		(1,000,000)					(600,000)
Restatement of net income		400,000		600,000		1,000,000		(900,000)		600,000		(100,000)			2,000,000		(300,000)
Restatement on earnings per share basic		$ 0.01		$ 0.01		$ 0.02		$ (0.01)		$ 0.01		$ (0.01)			$ 0.04		$ (0.01)
Restatement on earnings per share diluted		$ 0.01		$ 0.01		$ 0.01		$ (0.02)		$ 0.01		$ (0.01)			$ 0.03		$ (0.01)
Scenario, Previously Reported [Member]
Product sales								33,543,000									113,027,000	[9]
Promotion services																	20,614,000
Cost of product sales								6,712,000									20,013,000	[9]
Net income								$ 12,402,000									$ 28,464,000
Basic net income per share								$ 0.21									$ 0.52
Diluted net income per share								$ 0.21									$ 0.50

[1] For the three months ended September 30, 2012, the restatement revisions had an impact of increasing revenues, decreasing cost of product sales, and increasing net income by $7,000, $1,000 and $0.4 million, respectively, and increasing basic and diluted earnings per share by $0.01.

[2] For the three months ended June 30, 2012, the restatement revisions had an impact of increasing revenues, cost of product sales, and net income by $1.1 million, $0.4 million and $0.6 million, respectively, and increasing basic and diluted earnings per share by $0.01.

[3] For the three months ended March, 2012, the restatement revisions had an impact of increasing revenues, cost of product sales, and net income by $1.9 million, $0.6 million and $1.0 million, respectively, and increasing basic and diluted earnings per share by $0.02 and $0.01, respectively.

[4] For the three months ended December 31, 2011, the restatement revisions had an impact of decreasing revenues, cost of product sales, and net income by $1.8 million, $0.9 million, and $0.9 million, respectively, and decreasing basic and diluted earnings per share by $0.01 and $0.02, respectively.

[5] Changes to the selected quarterly financial data for the three months ended December 31, 2011 mainly related to the Company changing from the “sell-in” method to the “sell-through” method of revenue recognition for certain Pfizer products sold by the Company.

[6] For the three months ended September 30, 2011, the restatement revisions had an impact of increasing revenues, cost of product sales, and net income by $1.9 million, $1.2 million and $0.6 million, respectively, and increasing basic and diluted earnings per share by $0.01.

[7] For the three months ended June 30, 2011, the restatement revisions had an impact of decreasing revenues, cost of product sales, and net income by $1.2 million, $1.0 million and $0.1 million, respectively, and decreasing diluted earnings per share by $0.01.

[8] On April 18, 2011, SciClone acquired NovaMed. Commencing April 18, 2011, the Company’s financial statements include the assets, liabilities, operating results and cash flows of NovaMed.

[9] Revenue decreased $1.1 million and cost of product sales decreased $0.6 million mainly related to the Company changing from the “sell-in” method to the “sell-through” method of revenue recognition for certain Pfizer products sold by the Company’s NovaMed subsidiary.

[10] During the three months ended September 30, 2012, the Company identified an impairment indicator with respect to its intangible assets related to its promotion and distribution contract rights and recorded losses of approximately $42.7 million to recognize the full impairment and recorded a benefit for income tax of approximately $6.8 million due to the impairment of intangible assets, which resulted in a reversal of deferred tax liabilities. This was partially offset by the impact of recognizing a full valuation allowance on any remaining NovaMed deferred tax assets. In addition, for the same period, the Company recorded a non-cash gain of $12.8 million, primarily related to the decrease in estimated probability of achieving targets relating to NovaMed’s product distributor agreements, including the renewal of the agreement with Sanofi for a five-year term.