Used primarily in the pharmaceutical industry as a synthetic intermediate for corticosteroid drugs. It serves in the production of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive agents due to its structural similarity to glucocorticoids. The compound is modified in multi-step syntheses to yield active pharmaceutical ingredients used in treating skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, and other inflammatory diseases. Its functional groups allow selective chemical transformations, making it valuable in steroid chemistry for introducing specific modifications at key positions on the steroid nucleus.