Abstract
Drug development is a long and costly process. Although the length of drug development may vary depending on the target class, attrition is the main contributor to the financial burden. Therefore, various biological markers (biomarkers) are needed to determine compound efficacy and dosing. Biomarkers provide comprehensive information about the molecular network of the target and lead compound in vivo. Such information has the potential of shortening time of development and reducing costs by facilitating the decision of what lead compound should move forward at early development stages. This review article focuses on the strategies for biomarker discovery by giving readers a practical guideline to approaches that are used for the discovery, validation and use of biomarkers to accelerate the process of drug discovery.