Used primarily as a pharmaceutical intermediate in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), particularly in the development of central nervous system (CNS) agents. It serves as a key building block in the production of certain analgesics and neuromodulatory drugs due to its structural similarity to piperidine-based receptor ligands. Its ester functionality allows for easy modification in multi-step organic syntheses, making it valuable in medicinal chemistry for creating analogs and derivatives during drug discovery. Also utilized in research settings for generating compound libraries for biological screening.