Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel is the standard care to prevent stent thrombosis and recurrent ischemic events after acute coronary syndrome or stent placement. However, there is a large inter-individual variability in biological anti-platelet responsiveness and clinical outcomes in patients after clopidogrel treatment. Apart from clinical and environmental factors, recently accumulated evidence strongly confirms the pivotal role of genetic factors for the variability of clopidogrel responsiveness. Several large-scale pharmacogenomic studies found that the loss-of-function alleles of CYP2C19 and the key enzyme in clopidogrel metabolism are the predominant genetic mediators of low clopidogrel responsiveness and recurrent cardiovascular events. Other genetic polymorphisms related with clopidogrel metabolism may also contribute to the variability of clopidogrel efficacy. On the basis of these observations, it is still in controversy whether CYP2C19-genotype-guided individualized clopidogrel therapy could overcome the high on-treatment platelet reactivity to clopidogrel. In the future, it is necessary to combine genotyping and platelet function testing to guide the individualized clopidogrel therapy.