Shares of Mirati Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MRTX) fell more than 20% in the early afternoon on Tuesday. The clinical-stage biotech company focuses on oncology therapies. It saw its shares plunge more than $19 from their closing price on Monday. 

The slump happened after the company announced early results Monday from a phase 2 trial for Adagrasib as a first-line combination therapy to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The trial combined the drug with Merck drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab) to be used on patients with NSCLC with a KRASG12C+ mutation. The point was to see how effective a KRASG12C+ inhibitor (Adagrasib) and a PD-1/L1 checkpoint inhibitor (Keytruda) would be together to fight NSLC.

While the report said the therapy showed a good safety profile and a 49% objective response rate and could be seen as an alternative to chemotherapy, investors and analysts were apparently not impressed. It didn't help their confidence when two of the company's executives sold the company's stock in recent days.

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Source Fool.com