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Note 17 - Related Party Transactions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2017
Notes to Financial Statements
Related Party Transactions Disclosure [Text Block]	17. Related Party Transaction Stephen Hoffman is a Senior Advisor to PDL and a member of the Company's Board of Directors, or the Board. The Board was aware of Dr. Hoffman ’s status as an interested party in the Royalty Monetization and Dr. Hoffman recused himself from all deliberations and actions taken by the Board with respect to the Royalty Monetization. Dr. Hoffman’s consulting compensation from PDL is composed, in part, of a success fee which is formula driven based on a minimum dollar value of deals and the total dollar value of the deals, his relative contribution to each of the concluded deals, and the total dollar value deployed in 2015. PDL estimates the amount attributable to the AcelRx transaction in the year ended December 31, 2015 to be approximately $0.3 million. The Company makes royalty payments to PDL in connection with the Royalty Monetization as described in Note 8 “Liability Related to Sale of Future Royalties.”

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- Definition

The entire disclosure for related party transactions. Examples of related party transactions include transactions between (a) a parent company and its subsidiary; (b) subsidiaries of a common parent; (c) and entity and its principal owners; and (d) affiliates.

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Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 850
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2122745

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