In September 2000, Alexion significantly expanded its ability to create a vast array of human antibody therapeutics with the formation of Alexion Antibody Technologies (AAT), which was created via the acquisition of a San Diego, CA-based private biotechnology company, Prolifaron, LLC. The human Combinatorial Antibody Library Technology, "CoALT", is being exploited for the discovery of highly specific fully human and humanized antibody products. AAT's technologies involve the generation of combinatorial libraries of human antibodies and the screening of these libraries against potential drug targets, all performed in the laboratory without the requirement of animals.

Alexion believes that these technologies are optimally suited for the rapid generation of novel fully human therapeutic antibodies directed at known clinical targets. Furthermore, these technologies are well suited for the simultaneous and efficient identification of both newly discovered genomic targets and their appropriate fully human and humanized antibody therapeutics. This antibody discovery platform can create potential products in weeks, instead of months.

More specifically, relative to the generation of human antibodies by transgenic approaches, there are considerable advantages to CoALT. These include a significantly shorter time to antibody discovery, the feasibility of integrating automated high throughput screening approaches, and the applicability to genomic discovery. Alexion believes that merging this broad enabling discovery platform with its current established antibody development capacity may offer the expedited development of a new wave of antibody therapeutics.