Used as an intermediate in the synthesis of pharmaceutical compounds, particularly in the development of pyridone-based drugs. It serves as a building block for introducing the acetate functionality protected as a tert-butyl ester onto nitrogen-containing heterocycles. This compound is valuable in medicinal chemistry for constructing complex molecules with biological activity, especially in the preparation of kinase inhibitors and antimicrobial agents. Its nitro and ester groups allow further chemical transformations, enabling diverse derivatization for structure-activity relationship studies.