NOTE 3 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the Unites States of America (“U.S. GAAP”).

Principles of Consolidation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries 180 LP, CBR Pharma, Katexco and 180 Life Corp. (“180LC”). All inter-company balances and transactions among the companies have been eliminated upon consolidation. The consolidated financial statements are presented in U.S. Dollars.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates, judgments, and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, together with amounts disclosed in the related notes to the consolidated financial statements. The Company’s significant estimates and assumptions used in these financial statements include, but are not limited to, the fair value of financial instruments, warrants, options and derivative liabilities; R&D tax credits and accruals, and the estimates and assumptions related to the impairment analysis of IP R&D assets. Certain of the Company’s estimates could be affected by external conditions, including those unique to the Company and general economic conditions. It is reasonably possible that these external factors could have an effect on the Company’s estimates and may cause actual results to differ from those estimates.

Foreign Currency Translation

The Company’s reporting currency is the United States dollar. The functional currency of certain subsidiaries is the Canadian Dollar (“CAD”) or British Pound (“GBP”). Assets and liabilities are translated based on the exchange rates at the balance sheet date (0.7547 and 0.7369 for the CAD, 1.2730 and 1.2098 for the GBP as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively), while expense accounts are translated at the weighted average exchange rate for the period (0.7458 and 0.7689 for the CAD, and 1.2667 and 1.2173 for the GBP for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively). Equity accounts are translated at historical exchange rates. The resulting translation adjustments are recognized in stockholders’ (deficit) equity as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income.

Comprehensive income is defined as the change in equity of an entity from all sources other than investments by owners or distributions to owners and includes foreign currency translation adjustments as described above. During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, the Company recorded other comprehensive loss of $15,816 and $3,702,963, respectively, as a result of foreign currency translation adjustments.

Foreign currency gains and losses resulting from transactions denominated in foreign currencies, including intercompany transactions, are included in results of operations. The Company recognized $2,380 and $12,777 in foreign currency transaction losses for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Such amounts have been classified within general and administrative expenses in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

The Company considers all highly liquid investments with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents in the financial statements. The Company had no cash equivalents at December 31, 2023 or 2022. As of December 31, 2023, the Company had bank accounts in the United States and the United Kingdom; of its available cash balance, $25,474 is restricted cash. The Company’s cash deposits in United States and English financial institutions may at times be in excess of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (“FSCS”) insurance limits, respectively. The Company has not experienced losses in such accounts and periodically evaluates the creditworthiness of its financial institutions.

Goodwill

Goodwill represents the difference between the purchase price and the fair value of assets and liabilities acquired in a business combination. The Company reviews goodwill yearly, or more frequently whenever circumstances and situations change such that there is an indication that the carrying amounts may not be recovered, for impairment by initially considering qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, including goodwill, as a basis for determining whether it is necessary to perform a quantitative analysis. If it is determined that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, a quantitative analysis is performed to identify goodwill impairment. If it is determined that it is not more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, it is unnecessary to perform a quantitative analysis. The Company may elect to bypass the qualitative assessment and proceed directly to performing a quantitative analysis. See “Note 5 – Intangible Assets and Impairment of Long-lived Assets” for further information.

Intangible Assets and In-Process Research and Development (“IP R&D”)

Intangible assets consist of licensed patents held by Katexco as well as technology licenses acquired in connection with the Reorganization. Licensed patents are amortized over the remaining life of the patent. Technology licenses represent the fair value of licenses acquired for the development and commercialization of certain licenses and knowledge. The technology licenses are amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the underlying patents. It will be necessary to monitor and possibly adjust the useful lives of the licensed patents and technology licenses depending on the results of the Company’s research and development activities.

IP R&D assets represent the fair value assigned to technologies that were acquired on July 16, 2019 in connection with the Reorganization, which have not reached technological feasibility and have no alternative future use. IP R&D assets are considered to have indefinite-lives until the completion or abandonment of the associated research and development projects. During the period that the IP R&D assets are considered indefinite-lived, they are tested for impairment on an annual basis, or more frequently if the Company becomes aware of any events occurring or changes in circumstances that indicate that the fair value of the IP R&D assets are less than their carrying amounts. If and when development is complete, which generally occurs upon regulatory approval, and the Company is able to commercialize products associated with the IP R&D assets, these assets are then deemed definite-lived and are amortized based on their estimated useful lives at that point in time. If development is terminated or abandoned, the Company may record a full or partial impairment charge related to the IP R&D assets, calculated as the excess of the carrying value of the IP R&D assets over their estimated fair value. During 2023, the Company recorded a loss on impairment to IP R&D assets in the amount of $9,063,000, and as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the balance of the IP R&D assets on the balance sheet was $0 and $9,063,000, respectively. See “Note 5 – Intangible Assets and Impairment of Long-lived Assets” for further information.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

The Company measures the fair value of financial assets and liabilities based on the guidance of Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 820 “Fair Value Measurements” (“ASC 820”), which defines fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value, and expands disclosures about fair value measurements.

ASC 820 defines fair value as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. ASC 820 also establishes a fair value hierarchy, which requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. ASC 820 describes three levels of inputs that may be used to measure fair value: 

The carrying amounts of certain of the Company’s financial instruments, consisting primarily of loans payable, approximate their fair values as presented in these consolidated financial statements due to the short-term nature of those instruments. The Company’s derivative liabilities were valued using level 3 inputs (see Note 7 – Derivative Liabilities for additional information).

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company measures the cost of services received in exchange for an award of equity instruments based on the fair value of the award. The fair value of the award is measured on the grant date and is estimated by management based on observations of the recent cash sales prices of common stock. The fair value amount is then recognized over the period during which services are required to be provided in exchange for the award, usually the vesting period. Upon the exercise of an option or warrant, the Company issues new shares of common stock out of its authorized but unissued shares.

Derivative Liabilities and Convertible Instruments

The Company evaluates its debt and equity issuances to determine if those contracts or embedded components of those contracts qualify as derivatives requiring separate recognition in the Company’s financial statements. Entities must consider whether to classify contracts that may be settled in its own stock, such as warrants, as equity of the entity or as an asset or liability. If an event that is not within the entity’s control could require net cash settlement, then the contract should be classified as an asset or a liability rather than as equity.

The result of this accounting treatment is that the fair value of the embedded derivative is marked-to-market at each balance sheet date and recorded as a liability and the change in fair value is recorded in other (expense) income, net in the consolidated statements of operations. In circumstances where there are multiple embedded instruments that are required to be bifurcated, the bifurcated derivative instruments are accounted for as a single, compound derivative instrument. The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is reassessed at the end of each reporting period. Equity instruments that are initially classified as equity that become subject to reclassification are reclassified to liability at the fair value of the instrument on the reclassification date. Derivative instrument liabilities are classified in the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement of the derivative instrument is expected within twelve months of the balance sheet date.

If the embedded conversion options do not require bifurcation, the Company then evaluates for the existence of a beneficial conversion feature by comparing the fair value of the Company’s underlying stock as of the commitment date to the effective conversion price of the instrument (the intrinsic value).

Debt discounts under these arrangements are amortized over the term of the related debt to their stated date of redemption and are classified in interest expense in the consolidated statements of operations. Preferred stock discounts are only accreted to their redemption value if redemption becomes probable.

Amendments to convertible instruments are evaluated as to whether they should be accounted for as a modification of the original instrument with no change to the accounting or, if the terms are substantially changed, as an extinguishment of the original instrument and the issuance of a new instrument.

The Company has computed the fair value of warrants and options issued using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. The expected term used for warrants, convertible notes and convertible preferred stock are the contractual life and the expected term used for options issued is the estimated period of time that options granted are expected to be outstanding. The Company utilizes the “simplified” method to develop an estimate of the expected term of “plain vanilla” option grants. The Company is utilizing an expected volatility figure based on a review of the historical volatilities, over a period of time, equivalent to the expected life of the instrument being valued, of similarly positioned public companies within its industry. The risk-free interest rate was determined from the implied yields from U.S. Treasury zero-coupon bonds with a remaining term consistent with the expected term of the instrument being valued.

Net Loss Per Common Share

Basic net loss per common share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted net loss per common share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding, plus the number of additional common shares that would have been outstanding if the common share equivalents had been issued (computed using the treasury stock or if converted method), if dilutive. 

The following common share equivalents are excluded from the calculation of weighted average common shares outstanding, because their inclusion would have been anti-dilutive:

Research and Development

Research and development expenses are charged to operations as incurred. During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, the Company incurred $2,303,751 and $2,191,834, respectively, of research and development expenses. As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, research and development expenses – related parties were $480,777 and $240,731, respectively. See Note 12 – Related Parties for more information on research and development expenses – related parties.

Income Taxes

The Company accounts for income taxes under the provisions of ASC Topic 740 “Income Taxes” (“ASC 740”).

The Company recognizes deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of items that have been included or excluded in the financial statements or tax returns. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined on the basis of the difference between the tax basis of assets and liabilities and their respective financial reporting amounts (“temporary differences”) at enacted tax rates in effect for the years in which the temporary differences are expected to reverse.

The Company utilizes a recognition threshold and measurement process for financial statement recognition and measurement of a tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. The Company’s policy is to classify assessments, if any, for tax related interest as interest expense and penalties as general and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. The standard’s main goal is to improve financial reporting by requiring earlier recognition of credit losses on financing receivables and other financial assets in scope. The new guidance represents significant changes to accounting for credit losses, including i) full lifetime expected credit losses will be recognized upon initial recognition of an asset in scope; ii) the current incurred loss impairment model that recognizes losses when a probable threshold is met will be replaced with the expected credit loss impairment method without recognition threshold; and iii) the expected credit losses estimate will be based upon historical information, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts. ASU 2016-13 is effective for SEC filers (excluding those that are eligible to be a smaller reporting company) for periods beginning after December 15, 2019 and for all other entities, for periods beginning after December 15, 2022. The Company has adopted this standard effective January 1, 2023, and its adoption did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

On November 27, 2023, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2023-07, Segment Reporting (Topic 280). The amendments were designed to improve reportable segment disclosure requirements, primarily through enhanced disclosures about significant segment expenses. In addition, the amendments enhance interim disclosure requirements, clarify circumstances in which an entity can disclose multiple segment measures of profit or loss, provide new segment disclosure requirements for entities with a single reportable segment, and contain other disclosure requirements. The purpose of the amendments is to enable investors to better understand an entity’s overall performance and assess potential future cash flows. The ASU applies to all public entities that are required to report segment information in accordance with ASC 280. As the Company is not required to report segment information, this pronouncement does not have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

On December 14, 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures. The ASU focuses on income tax disclosures around effective tax rates and cash income taxes paid. ASU 2023-09 largely follows the proposed ASU issued earlier in 2023 with several important modifications and clarifications discussed below. ASU 2023-09 is effective for public business entities for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024 (generally, calendar year 2025) and effective for all other business entities one year later. Entities should adopt this guidance on a prospective basis, though retrospective application is permitted. The Company is currently assessing the implications of this ASU.

Management does not believe that any other recently issued, but not effective, accounting pronouncements, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.