Used as a chiral building block in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, particularly in the development of central nervous system agents and enzyme inhibitors. Its trifluoromethyl group enhances metabolic stability and lipophilicity, making it valuable in medicinal chemistry for improving drug bioavailability and binding affinity. Commonly employed in asymmetric synthesis to introduce chirality in active pharmaceutical ingredients. Also utilized in the preparation of fluorinated analogs of bioactive molecules for structure-activity relationship studies.