A kinetic study on the alkalinehydrolysis of cephaloridine (1) at pH 10.5 and 37° was carried out using ion-pair reversed-phase HPLC. The main resulting degradation products, the 7-epimer 2 of 1, the Δ2-isomer 3 of 1, and the 3-methylidene compound 4 were identified. The presence of a pyridinio group at C(31) results in a slightly increased formation constant for the 3-methylidene compound 4 and the