The activity of penicillin, alone and in combination with sulbactam, against a heterogeneously methicillin-resistant, penicillinase-producing clinical isolate of Staphylococcus aureus and its penicillinase-negative derivative was investigated in vitro and in a rabbit experimental endocarditis model. Penicillin was significantly more effective than vancomycin against the penicillinase-negative derivative in vivo (P < 0.001), and it sterilized 25% of the vegetations. The combination of penicillin and sulbactam exhibited an in vivo synergistic effect on the penicillinase-producing strain (P < 0.01) but did not produce any advantage over treatment with vancomycin, even when a high dose of sulbactam was used (100 mg/kg of body weight every 6 h). This combination was significantly less effective against the penicillinase-producing strain than was penicillin alone against the penicillinase-negative derivative (P < 0.03). In addition, the most resistant subpopulation of the surviving bacteria, which grew on agar containing 16 micrograms of methicillin per ml, was detected in 5 of 6 animals treated with penicillin and a high dose of sulbactam against the penicillinase-producing strain compared with only 1 of 12 animals treated with penicillin alone against the penicillinase-negative derivative (P < 0.01). We conclude that penicillin is highly effective against penicillinase-negative methicillin-resistant S. aureus and that penicillinase production, rather than methicillin resistance, appears to be the limiting factor for the activity of the penicillin-sulbactam combination against penicillinase-producing, methicillin-resistant S. aureus.