Used in the synthesis of fluorinated pharmaceuticals due to its chiral structure and fluorine substituents, which enhance metabolic stability and bioavailability. Commonly employed as a building block in drug development, particularly in central nervous system agents and enzyme inhibitors. Its carboxylic acid and hydroxyl functional groups allow for easy derivatization, making it valuable in medicinal chemistry for creating analogs and probing structure-activity relationships. Also utilized in asymmetric synthesis and chiral resolution studies.