Anticoagulants are drugs that prevents blood coagulation by inhibiting or blocking certain parts of the organism's physiological coagulation mechanism, which are mainly used in the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic diseases. Traditional oral anticoagulants can interfere with multiple targets in the coagulation mechanism, represented by warfarin. Although warfarin has remarkable advantages on the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic disease, the disadvantages of it also limited the popularity among both doctors and patients in clinical practise. Compared with traditional oral anticoagulants, New oral anticoagulants (NOACs) inhibit blood coagulation pathways in particular of the clotting factors, for example thrombin inhibitors (dabigatran etexilate) and blood coagulation factor X inhibitors (rivaroxaban apixaban; edoxaban; the Ⅲ clinical study of betrixaban), NOACs work fast, metabolic quickly, do without regular monitoring of blood coagulation indexes, interact less with food and drug, risk less bleeding events, especially intracranial hemorrhage. At present, NOACs have been widely used in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation of anticoagulant therapy, prevention of deep vein thrombosis and the secondary prevention of acute coronary syndrome. So more clinical studies about NOACs were conducted to further define the scope of its indications, dosage adjustment, optimization of individual application. These new progress makes the new oral anticoagulants walking in the forefront of the times, provided more choices to make the best treatment plans for patients in need of anticoagulation. Here we provide a brief overview in the drug characteristics and clinical research progress of NOACs to promote standardized application of NOACs.