On Oct. 13, regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) new drug for moderate to severe ulcerative colitis (UC), Velsipity, was ready for prime time. That puts the company on a collision course with (NYSE: ABBV), the leader of the market for ulcerative colitis therapies for many years.

In a worst-case scenario, it's possible that AbbVie might get its lunch eaten. Even under the best of conditions, it'll probably face a headwind in gaining and retaining market share, and there's more than one disease market at stake. Here's what's going on and what it means for investors.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon and rectum for which there are a handful of treatments available, but no cure. UC affects as many as 4 out of 1,000 people in North America, and it appears to be more prevalent in the Western world compared to elsewhere.

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Source Fool.com