Pharmaceutical Education and Practice

Biomarkers and New Drug Targets

Biomarker are defined as these are the biological characteristic that is objectively measured and they are evaluated as an indicator of the normal biological or the pathological processes, or a response to a therapeutic intervention. Biomarkers are also important in the development of the new drug therapies through the discovery of "druggable targets." In addition to the identifying of drug targets, the biomarkers have the potential to speed development of the new disease therapies through the use of "progression" markers to delineate the development and the course of a disease. Researchers can also use the changes in the progression markers to understand and how a new therapy is successfully slowing – or even reversing – the disease process. Results of the studies like these will allow researchers to focus on the efforts and resources on the most effective therapies, thus reducing the time and the cost to bring a new therapy to the market and eventually to the patient.