Description of Operations	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Description of Operations	1. Description of operations Shire plc and its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as either “Shire”, or the “Company”) is a biotech Company, focusing on developing and marketing innovative medicines for patients with rare diseases and other select conditions. The Company has grown both organically and through acquisition, completing a series of major transactions that have brought therapeutic, geographic and pipeline growth and diversification. The Company will continue to conduct its own R&D, focused on rare diseases, as well as evaluate companies, products and pipeline opportunities that offer a strategic fit and have the potential to deliver value to all of the Company's stakeholders: patients, physicians, policy makers, payers, investors and employees.

The entire disclosure for the nature of an entity's business, major products or services, principal markets including location, and the relative importance of its operations in each business and the basis for the determination, including but not limited to, assets, revenues, or earnings. For an entity that has not commenced principal operations, disclosures about the risks and uncertainties related to the activities in which the entity is currently engaged and an understanding of what those activities are being directed toward.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 275
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51801978&loc=d3e6003-108592

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 275
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2A
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51801978&loc=SL51803626-108592

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