employees, including our Named Executive Officers. We believe that this approach recognizes that, as a Company, we are all one team with one mission. We believe our executive compensation program effectively aligns the interests of our Named Executive Officers with our objective of creating sustainable long-term value for our stockholders.
20192020 Highlights
During 2019,2020, our strategic priorities were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the FDA’s decision to issue a Complete Response Letter, or CRL, for the New Drug Application, or NDA, for our sole drug product candidate, veverimer, which resulted in a delay in expected approval and commercialization. As such, we executedwere unable to fully execute on substantially all of our strategic priorities. However, we believe that we have made significant progress on several fronts. Highlights from 20192020 include:
The U.S. FoodFollowing the receipt of the CRL, we have made progress with the FDA to understand the deficiencies identified in the CRL and Drug Administration (FDA) accepteddetermine a possible path forward for review, through the Accelerated Approval Program, our New Drug Application (NDA)resubmission of the NDA for veverimer and has assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date of August 22, 2020. The FDA has indicated that it is currently planning to hold a Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee (CRDAC) meeting to discuss the application.veverimer;
We announced positive results oflaid a strong foundation for the TRCA-301E trial, a placebo-controlled, blinded, 40-week extension trial. The trial met its primary and all secondary endpoints.
The Lancet published results from our successful TRCA-301 Phase 3 clinical trial in March 2019 and the successful TRCA-301E long-term extension trial in June 2019.
We hired key executives and expanded our Medical Affairs and Commercial organizations to support disease awareness efforts and the potentialcommercial launch of veverimer through an expanded disease education and awareness program, sponsorship of Continuing Medical Education, or CME, programs and over 20 presentations or publications of new data on veverimer, metabolic acidosis, health and economic impacts of metabolic acidosis or the link between metabolic acidosis and CKD progression, and met with 126 payers representing approximately 310 million lives;
As of December 31, 2020, the VALOR-CKD trial had randomized 1,363 of 1,600 subjects with an average treatment duration of approximately one year and has accrued 57 of the 511 required subjects with positively adjudicated primary endpoint events;
Continued execution on our global IP strategy, resulting in the second halfallowance of 2020.a U.S. patent application that, upon issuance in 2021 extended protection for veverimer to 2038 in the U.S., and the issuance of an additional 126 patents in 47 different countries, including Australia, China, Israel, Japan, Russia and numerous European and European extension states; and
In order to secure additional capital to fund operations, in May 2020, we issued $200.0 million aggregate principal amount of 3.50% convertible senior notes due 2027, or Convertible Senior Notes, pursuant to which we pay interest semiannually in arrears at a rate of 3.50% per year.
Due to the delay in regulatory approval and commercialization of veverimer, on September 10, 2020, the compensation committee of the board of directors, or Committee, approved the Tricida, Inc. 2020 Reduction in Force Severance Benefit Plan, or 2020 Restructuring Plan. On September 18, 2020, the Company implemented a restructuring under the 2020 Restructuring Plan to streamline the organization and preserve capital that included the elimination of approximately 21.5% of the Company's workforce and other cost reductions. Following the completion of the Company’s End-of-Review Type A meeting with the FDA, on October 25, 2020, the Company's Board of Directors approved and on October 28, 2020, the Company implemented a restructuring under the 2020 Restructuring Plan, or Fourth Quarter 2020 Restructuring, to reduce operating costs and better align its workforce with the needs of its business. Under the Fourth Quarter 2020 Restructuring, the Company reduced its workforce by approximately 60.0% and achieved other cost reductions.
The compensation paid or awarded to our executive officers is generally based on the assessment of each individual’s performance compared against the business objectives established for the fiscal year as well as our historical compensation practices. In the case of new hire executive officers, their compensation is primarily determined based on the negotiations of the parties as well as our historical compensation practices. In setting compensation, the compensation committee of the board of directors (the “Committee”)Committee also considers the competitive market, as discussed further below, and seeks to recognize and reward high performers through meaningful merit adjustments and bonus and equity incentive opportunities. For 2019,As in prior years, for 2020, the material elements of our executive compensation program were base salary, a cash incentive awardsopportunity and equity-based compensation in the form of stock options. In addition, in September 2020, the Committee approved a retention program in order to motivate employees and to minimize employee departures during the critical 2020 - 2021 time period for achieving resubmission and approval of the Company’s NDA for veverimer and commercial launch. Each continuing employee of the