Ever-changing ocean environment has bred the extreme diversity of marine microorganisms. Recent researches showed that marine bacteria, the majority of the marine microorganism, generate abundant bio-active materials, indicating a foreseeable and great potential of the search for novel bio-active products from marine bacteria. This progress has attracted attentions of both academia and business. Marine bacteria could become a new resource in drug screening and show a promising development prospect. Based on the recent works of bio-active material from marine bacteria, we reviewed their main features and active roles in the study of antibiotics, anti-tumor agents, enzyme and enzyme inhibitors, anti-inflammatory medicine and so on, revealing the current status of marine bacteria bio-active material in drug development. We summed up the problems encountered at this stage and made a prediction of probable hot spot in the future development.