A symposium entitled 'Application of Pharmacokinetics in Developmental Toxicity Risk Assessments' was held at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) in Miami Beach, Florida. It was sponsored by the Reproductive and Developmental Specialty Section of SOT to address the current state of knowledge relating to the use of physiological and metabolic information in reducing the uncertainties inherent in the presently practiced procedures for extrapolating animal toxicology data to the human situation. The goal of the symposium is to communicate where one is in the process of moving pharmacokinetic data from a research mode to an application mode. The first speaker discussed physiological adaptations required for successful pregnancy and how these might impact on the manifestation of developmental toxicity across species. The use of pharmacokinetics for the interpretation of teratogenicity studies in regard to interspecies extrapolation and structure-activity relationships, and how the information might be used to modify testing protocols to more accurately reflect human exposure patterns was also discussed, as well as the use of multiple correlation procedures to determine which pharmacokinetic parameters are most appropriate as integrated internal dose estimates for quantitative dose-response modelling. Next discussed was rodent whole embryo culture, and how it presents advantages and disadvantages for assessment of pharmacokinetic factors in teratogenesis. Finally, the concept of physiologically based pharmacokinetic modelling and how it can be applied to extrapolate data between species was introduced.