Used in pharmaceutical research as a key intermediate in the synthesis of kinase inhibitors, particularly in the development of anticancer agents. It serves as a building block for indolinone-based compounds that exhibit biological activity against various tumor cell lines. Also employed in the preparation of tyrosine kinase and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. Its structure allows for easy functionalization, making it valuable in medicinal chemistry for structure-activity relationship studies. Additionally, it is utilized in the design of small molecule therapeutics targeting signal transduction pathways involved in cell proliferation and apoptosis.