Collaborative Arrangements and Pending Acquisition - Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Details) - Janssen - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2017	Mar. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2014
Collaborative Arrangements and Non-collaborative Arrangement Transactions [Line Items]
Up-front payment			$ 35.0
Time period of notice required to terminate	6 months
Reimbursement for development and commercialization of compounds	$ 0.9	$ 3.5

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.

No definition available.

+ Details

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

- Definition

Repayment received or receivable for expenses incurred on behalf of a client or customer, other than those reimbursements received by landlords from tenants.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 225
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-03.1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=63488584&loc=d3e20235-122688

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 605
-SubTopic 45
-Section 45
-Paragraph 23
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68075638&loc=d3e60722-111653

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ReimbursementRevenue
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Collaborative Arrangement, Time Period of Notice Required to Terminate

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	vrtx_CollaborativeArrangementTimePeriodofNoticeRequiredtoTerminate
Namespace Prefix:	vrtx_
Data Type:	xbrli:durationItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The amount of the up-front license fee paid by the entity pursuant to a collaborative arrangement.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	vrtx_CollaborativeArrangementUpFrontLicenseFee
Namespace Prefix:	vrtx_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	vrtx_CollaborativeArrangementsByAgreementAxis=vrtx_JanssenCollaborativeAgreementMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: