In the past pharmacological agents have contributed to a significant reduction in age-adjusted incidence of cardiovascular events. However, not all patients treated with these agents respond favorably, and some individuals may develop side-effects. With aging of the population and the growing prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors worldwide, it is expected that the demand for cardiovascular drugs will increase in the future. Accordingly, there is a growing need to identify the 'good' responders as well as the persons at risk for developing adverse events. Evidence is accumulating to indicate that responses to drugs are at least partly under genetic control. As such, pharmacogenetics - the study of variability in drug responses attributed to hereditary factors in different populations - may significantly assist in providing answers toward meeting this challenge. Pharmacogenetics mostly relies on associations between a specific genetic marker like single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), either alone or arranged in a specific linear order on a certain chromosomal region (haplotypes), and a particular response to drugs. Numerous associations have been reported between selected genotypes and specific responses to cardiovascular drugs. Recently, for instance, associations have been reported between specific alleles of the apoE gene and the lipid-lowering response to statins, or the lipid-elevating effect of isotretinoin. Thus far, these types of studies have been mostly limited to a priori selected candidate genes due to restricted genotyping and analytical capacities. Thanks to the large number of SNPs now available in the public domain through the SNP Consortium and the newly developed technologies (high throughput genotyping, bioinformatics software), it is now possible to interrogate more than 200,000 SNPs distributed over the entire human genome. One pharmacogenetic study using this approach has been launched by GlaxoSmithKline to identify the approximately 4% of patients who are predisposed to developing a hypersensitivity reaction to abacavir, an anti-HIV agent. Data collected thus far on the HLA locus on chromosome 6 indicate that this approach is feasible. Extended linkage disequilibrium can be detected readily, even across several haplotype blocks, thus potentially reducing the number of SNPs for future whole-genome scans. Finally, a modest number of cases and controls appears to be sufficient to detect genetic associations. There is little doubt that this type of approach will have an impact on the way cardiovascular drugs will be developed and prescribed in the future.