PharmGKB

What PharmGKB does

PharmGKB is a non-profit pharmacogenomics knowledge resource founded in 2001 and managed at Stanford University, curating gene-drug and allele-drug associations drawn from clinical guidelines, FDA drug labels, and peer-reviewed literature. It operates as a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is financially supported by cooperative agreement grants from multiple NIH institutes, including NHGRI (U24HG010615) and the joint CPIC/PharmCAT award (U24HG013077), with supplemental backing from NICHD, NIDA, and NCI. In 2026 the resource was consolidated into ClinPGx, an integrated platform that combines the PharmGKB knowledge base, the CPIC evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, and the PharmCAT tool for translating VCF data into pharmacogenomic guidance, alongside newer tools such as PharmDOG (mobile-accessible point-of-care guidance) and the Genotype Summary Interface (GSI) for cross-source comparison. The platform also offers a public API, downloadable datasets under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license, and a dedicated pediatric focus module, and is an affiliate grant of the ClinGen (Clinical Genome Resource) consortium.

The platform serves three user segments without traditional customer segmentation: healthcare professionals (clinicians, pharmacists, and physicians needing pharmacogenomic prescribing guidance), academic and industry researchers studying gene-drug interactions and personalized medicine, and educators and students requiring curated reference materials. Distribution occurs through a public website (clinpgx.org), programmatic API (api.clinpgx.org), downloadable data files, and community engagement via YouTube, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and a dedicated blog.

The business model is non-commercial: the resource is provided free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, with no products sold, no pricing tiers, and no commercial sales motion. Operations are funded entirely by NIH grants, making the entity functionally a federally supported academic research resource rather than a commercial enterprise. Headcount is 11-50 staff, and governance is distributed across Stanford, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (CPIC co-management), and the University of Pennsylvania (PharmCAT co-management).

Name

PharmGKB

Legal name

PharmGKB

Website

https://pharmgkb.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

PharmGKB is a federally funded, non-profit pharmacogenomics knowledge base managed at Stanford University, curating gene-drug evidence and clinical guidelines for clinicians, researchers, and educators worldwide. The 2026 ClinPGx rebrand integrated CPIC guidelines and the PharmCAT interpretation tool into a unified free platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Clinical Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Platform

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Clinical Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics (Modeling & Simulation) (HLAIALAG)

Keywords

• Pharmacogenomics knowledge base
• Clinical pharmacogenomics
• Drug-gene associations
• Precision medicine guidance
• Pharmacogenomic guidelines

Headquarters

HQ city

Stanford

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Government Grant Funding: PharmGKB is financially supported by NIH/NHGRI/NICHD/NIDA/NCI grants. The resource is free to users, with operations funded through institutional grants (U24HG010615 for PharmGKB, U24HG013077 for CPIC/PharmCAT). This is a non-commercial academic resource.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

PharmGKB (now part of the integrated ClinPGx platform) is a free, open-access pharmacogenomics knowledge resource that curates gene-drug and allele-drug associations, distributes evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPIC), and provides tools (PharmCAT, PharmDOG, GSI) to translate genomic test results into drug prescribing recommendations for clinicians, pharmacists, researchers, and educators.

Product overview

ClinPGx is a comprehensive clinical pharmacogenomic platform that integrates three core components: PharmGKB (the underlying knowledge base), CPIC (evidence-based clinical practice guidelines), and PharmCAT (VCF data translation tool). The platform operates alongside PharmDOG for mobile access and GSI for comparing guidance from different sources. Together, these products provide a complete workflow for clinical pharmacogenomics—from raw genomic data interpretation to actionable prescribing guidance for healthcare professionals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CPIC: Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium - provides evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for pharmacogenomics.
• PharmCAT
• PharmDOG

Products and services

• ClinPGx A comprehensive clinical pharmacogenomic (PGx) resource that integrates PharmGKB, CPIC, and PharmCAT into a unified platform. It supports precision medicine by providing drug prescribing recommendations from DNA test results, curated gene-drug associations, clinical guidelines, and educational content for healthcare professionals, researchers, and educators.
• PharmGKB A pharmacogenomics knowledge base (registered trademark) that curates and distributes gene-drug and allele-drug associations, annotated drug labels, drug pathway diagrams, and pharmacogenomic evidence to support clinical and research use of pharmacogenomics.
• CPIC (Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium) Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for pharmacogenomics, including curated prescribing guidance, gene-drug pairs, gene tables, and allele testing recommendations. CPIC is a registered service mark of HHS and is provided as a sub-brand/module within ClinPGx.
• PharmCAT A pharmacogenomics clinical annotation tool that translates VCF (Variant Call Format) data into pharmacogenomic guidance, supporting interpretation of genomic test results for clinical decision-making.
• PharmDOG A mobile-focused pharmacogenomic guidance application providing focused PGx guidance accessible on all devices, designed for ease of use and point-of-care implementation.
• GSI (Genotype Summary Interface) A tool that compares pharmacogenomic guidance from different sources, enabling users to view and compare gene-drug prescribing recommendations across multiple guideline providers.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• ClinGen (Clinical Genome Resource)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClinPGx is an affiliate grant of ClinGen (Clinical Genome Resource), connecting PharmGKB/CPIC/PharmCAT with the broader Clinical Genome Resource ecosystem for genomic medicine implementation.
• St. Jude Children's Research HospitalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCPIC is managed jointly at Stanford University and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. St. Jude provides institutional partnership for CPIC guidelines development and pediatric pharmacogenomics focus.
• University of PennsylvaniacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPharmCAT is managed jointly at Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania, contributing to the pharmacogenomics tools and resources available through ClinPGx.
• Stanford UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPharmGKB is managed at Stanford University. Stanford also co-manages CPIC and PharmCAT, serving as the primary institutional home for ClinPGx operations.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Genomind: Genomind is a commercial pharmacogenomic testing and clinical decision support company focused on mental health prescribing. It overlaps with ClinPGx's gene-drug guidance offering but delivers as a paid diagnostic service for clinicians rather than a free reference resource.
• Coriell Life Sciences: Coriell Life Sciences provides pharmacogenomic interpretation services and clinical decision-support tools used by healthcare organizations. It is an emerging peer offering curated PGx guidance to clinicians, overlapping with ClinPGx's clinical workflow use cases but delivering as a commercial service.

Broad incumbents

• deCODE genetics (Amgen): deCODE genetics is a large-scale human genetics research platform, now part of Amgen, producing population-level genomic datasets used to identify drug-gene relationships. Comparable as a population-genomics reference underpinning PGx science rather than a clinical-curation peer.
• UK Biobank: UK Biobank is a large-scale population genomic and phenotypic resource widely used for PGx association studies. It is broadly comparable as a research-grade genomic resource, though its primary role is data generation rather than curated clinical guidance.
• Genomics England: Genomics England operates a large-scale clinical genomic data resource with a participant-driven model. It is broadly comparable as a government-backed genomics knowledge platform but operates primarily at national scale rather than globally federated reference curation.
• NCBI / dbSNP: NCBI dbSNP is the foundational public catalog of human genetic variants maintained by NLM/NIH. It is a broad incumbent reference that underpins PGx variant interpretation in PharmGKB and PharmCAT, serving overlapping researchers and clinical genomics users.
• Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen): ClinGen is the broader NIH-funded clinical genomics knowledge resource of which ClinPGx is itself an affiliate grant. It is comparable as the umbrella curator of gene-disease clinical validity, overlapping with PharmGKB's role for drug-gene associations in clinical implementation.

Others

• gnomAD (Genome Aggregation Database): gnomAD is a population-level allele frequency resource operated by the Broad Institute. It is thematically adjacent to PharmGKB as a foundational genomics dataset that informs PGx allele interpretation and research, though it does not produce clinical prescribing guidance.

Direct peers

• CPIC (Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium): CPIC generates evidence-based clinical PGx guidelines and is now folded into ClinPGx, but it historically functioned as a parallel curated standards body. It is a direct peer — same customers (clinicians, labs, EHR developers), same content category (gene-drug dosing guidance), delivered as guidelines.
• PharmVar: PharmVar is a pharmacogenomics knowledge base focused on cataloging star allele definitions for PGx genes. It is a direct peer in that, like PharmGKB, it provides foundational curated variant/allele reference data consumed by clinicians, labs, and PharmCAT-style interpretation tools.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@ClinPGx
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pharmgkb
• Xx.com/pharmgkb
• Facebookfacebook.com/PharmGKB

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about PharmGKB