The pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of three different brands of ampicillin were studied in 10 volunteers. After intravenous administration ampicillin can be described adequately by a two-compartment open pharmacokinetic model. The half-life during the -phase was 9 min and the -half-life was in the range 50–60 min, independent of the mode of administration. Absolute bioavailability was determined from the ratio of the areas under the serum concentration curves obtained after oral and intravenous administration of equal doses. Bioavailability was also estimated by analysis of variance. The results indicated absolute availability of the three products of 39–54%. One of the products, a capsule formulation, showed a significantly lower bioavailability than the others, which were tablet formulations.