Used in organic synthesis as a chiral building block for pharmaceuticals, particularly in the preparation of antidepressants and other central nervous system agents. It serves as an intermediate in the manufacture of selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors due to its structural similarity to active components in such drugs. Its amine functionality allows for easy derivatization, making it valuable in medicinal chemistry for developing bioactive molecules. Also employed in the synthesis of novel analogs for structure-activity relationship studies in drug discovery.