Kinetics of drug release from both compared preparations available as a cream and an ointment, was in vitro studied. A reversed-phase HPLC method was developed for the determination of clobetasol-17-propionate in lipophylic bases using clobetasol-17-butyrate as an internal standard. Analyses were performed using a C18 reversed-phase column with a mobile phase of methanol-water and ultraviolet detection at lambda=254 nm. The calibration curve was constructed for the concentration range 0.5-40.0 microg/ml. The method is simple, accurate and precise.