Pharmacogenomics was first recognized by Pythagoras around 510 BC when he made a connection between the dangers of fava bean ingestion with hemolytic anemia and oxidative stress. In the 1950s, this identification was validated and attributed to deficiency of G6PD and is called favism. Although the first official publication was not until 1961, the unofficial beginnings of this science were around the 1950s. Reports of prolonged paralysis and fatal reactions linked to genetic variants in patients who lacked butyrylcholinesterase (pseudocholinesterase) following succinylcholine injection during anesthesia were first reported in 1956. The term pharmacogenetics was first coined in 1959 by Friedrich Vogel of Heidelberg, Germany (although some papers suggest it was 1957 or 1958). In the late 1960s, twin studies supported the inference of genetic involvement in drug metabolism, with identical twins sharing remarkable similarities in drug response compared to fraternal twins. The term pharmacogenomics first began appearing around the 1990s.
The first FDA approval of a pharmacogenetic test was in 2005 (for alleles in CYP2D6 and CYP2C19)