Pleconaril is an orally active, broad-spectrum antipicornaviral agent which demonstrates excellent penetration into the central nervous system, liver, and nasal epithelium. In view of the potential pediatric use of pleconaril, we conducted a single-dose, open-label study to characterize the pharmacokinetics of this antiviral agent in pediatric patients. Following an 8- to 10-h period of fasting, 18 children ranging in age from 2 to 12 years (7.5 ± 3.1 years) received a single 5-mg/kg of body weight oral dose of pleconaril solution administered with a breakfast of age-appropriate composition. Repeated blood samples (n = 10) were obtained over 24 h postdose, and pleconaril was quantified from plasma by gas chromatography. Plasma drug concentration-time data for each subject were fitted to the curve by using a nonlinear, weighted (weight = 1/Y_calc) least-squares algorithm, and model-dependent pharmacokinetic parameters were determined from the polyexponential parameter estimates. Pleconaril was well tolerated by all subjects. A one-compartment open-model with first-order absorption best described the plasma pleconaril concentration-time profile in 13 of the subjects over a 24-h postdose period. Pleconaril pharmacokinetic parameters (means ± standard deviations) for these 13 patients were as follows. The maximum concentration of the drug in serum (C_max) was 1,272.5 ± 622.1 ng/ml. The time to C_max was 4.1 ± 1.5 h, and the lag time was 0.75 ± 0.56 h. The apparent absorption rate constant was 0.75 ± 0.48 1/h, and the elimination rate constant was 0.16 ± 0.07 1/h. The area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to 24 h was 8,131.15 ± 3,411.82 ng · h/ml. The apparent total plasma clearance was 0.81 ± 0.86 liters/h/kg, and the apparent steady-state volume of distribution was 4.68 ± 2.02 liters/kg. The mean elimination half-life of pleconaril was 5.7 h. The mean plasma pleconaril concentrations at both 12 h (250.4 ± 148.2 ng/ml) and 24 h (137.9 ± 92.2 ng/ml) after the single 5-mg/kg oral dose in children were higher than that from in vitro studies reported to inhibit >90% of nonpolio enterovirus serotypes (i.e., 70 ng/ml). Thus, our data support the evaluation of a 5-mg/kg twice-daily oral dose of pleconaril for therapeutic trials in pediatric patients with enteroviral infections.