The possible correlations between embryotoxicity, plasma kinetics of toxic metabolites and covalent binding of metabolites to foetal tissues were studied using two drugs, albendazole and oxfendazole. In the rat, the metabolic inhibitor, SKF-525A, induced changes in embryotoxicity which were well correlated with plasma levels of identified embryotoxic metabolites, but not with the levels of foetal tissue bound drug metabolites.