I have no proof, by my gut feeling is that success in business is generally a concept assholes are better adapted for.
The reason I say this is that most companies that we consider "successful" are in my experience mostly being assholes to their customers. Since a company doesn't have an independent personality of its own, I imagine that such behavior must come from the people at the top of the food chain at those places, or at least the people very high in that chain.
> Does that mean people can't fast without violating the patent?
From the language, it would suggest that you'd have to administer this as a treatment for diabetes. And it's a very specific form of fasting, not fasting in general.