Business	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2016
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Business	Business La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company (collectively with its subsidiaries, the “Company”) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies intended to significantly improve outcomes in patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. The Company has several product candidates in development. LJPC-501 is the Company’s proprietary formulation of angiotensin II for the potential treatment of catecholamine-resistant hypotension. LJPC-401 is the Company’s novel formulation of synthetic human hepcidin for the potential treatment of conditions characterized by iron overload, such as hereditary hemochromatosis, beta thalassemia, sickle cell disease and myelodysplastic syndrome. LJPC-30S is the Company’s next-generation gentamicin derivative program that is focused on therapeutics for the potential treatment of serious bacterial infections as well as rare genetic disorders, such as cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The Company was incorporated in 1989 as a Delaware corporation and reincorporated in California in 2012. As of December 31, 2016, we had $65.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, compared to $126.5 million in cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2015. The Company has a history of incurring significant operating losses and negative cash flows from operations. Based on our cash and working capital as of December 31, 2016 and our current operating plans and projections, we believe that the available cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund operations for at least one year from the date this annual report on Form 10-K is filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. To fund future operations to the point where we are able to generate positive cash flow from the sales or out-licensing of our drug candidates, we will need to raise additional capital. The amount and timing of future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including the timing and results of our ongoing development efforts, the potential expansion of our current development programs, potential new development programs and related general and administrative support, as well as the overall condition of capital markets, including capital markets for development-stage and clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies. We anticipate that we will seek to fund our operations through public and private equity and debt financings or other sources, such as potential collaboration agreements. We cannot provide assurance that anticipated additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms, or at all. Although we have previously been successful in obtaining financing through equity securities offerings, there can be no assurance that we will be able to do so in the future. If we are unable to raise capital on terms acceptable to us when needed, we may choose to delay or reduce other discretionary spending and focus our resources on the commercialization of LJPC-501, should the clinical results warrant those resources.

Business

La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company (collectively with its subsidiaries, the “Company”) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies intended to significantly improve outcomes in patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. The Company has several product candidates in development. LJPC-501 is the Company’s proprietary formulation of angiotensin II for the potential treatment of catecholamine-resistant hypotension. LJPC-401 is the Company’s novel formulation of synthetic human hepcidin for the potential treatment of conditions characterized by iron overload, such as hereditary hemochromatosis, beta thalassemia, sickle cell disease and myelodysplastic syndrome. LJPC-30S is the Company’s next-generation gentamicin derivative program that is focused on therapeutics for the potential treatment of serious bacterial infections as well as rare genetic disorders, such as cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The Company was incorporated in 1989 as a Delaware corporation and reincorporated in California in 2012.

As of December 31, 2016, we had $65.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, compared to $126.5 million in cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2015. The Company has a history of incurring significant operating losses and negative cash flows from operations. Based on our cash and working capital as of December 31, 2016 and our current operating plans and projections, we believe that the available cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund operations for at least one year from the date this annual report on Form 10-K is filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. To fund future operations to the point where we are able to generate positive cash flow from the sales or out-licensing of our drug candidates, we will need to raise additional capital. The amount and timing of future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including the timing and results of our ongoing development efforts, the potential expansion of our current development programs, potential new development programs and related general and administrative support, as well as the overall condition of capital markets, including capital markets for development-stage and clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies. We anticipate that we will seek to fund our operations through public and private equity and debt financings or other sources, such as potential collaboration agreements. We cannot provide assurance that anticipated additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms, or at all. Although we have previously been successful in obtaining financing through equity securities offerings, there can be no assurance that we will be able to do so in the future. If we are unable to raise capital on terms acceptable to us when needed, we may choose to delay or reduce other discretionary spending and focus our resources on the commercialization of LJPC-501, should the clinical results warrant those resources.