Used in pharmaceutical synthesis as a protected chiral building block. The hydroxycyclobutyl group serves as a rigid scaffold to influence stereochemistry in drug molecules. The tert-butyl carbamate (Boc) group provides amine protection during peptide coupling or heterocycle formation. Commonly employed in the development of protease inhibitors and CNS-active agents where cyclobutane rings improve metabolic stability and membrane permeability. The cis-hydroxy functionality allows for further derivatization, such as esterification or ether formation, enabling structure-activity relationship optimization. Suitable for solid-phase and solution-phase synthesis due to its stability under basic and mild acidic conditions.