CEO says Bristol-Myers on even keel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The interim chief executive officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb said on Wednesday that cost savings will help the company preserve its lofty dividend through 2007 and boost research spending next year, despite plunging sales of the company's biggest-selling medicine.

James Cornelius was named interim CEO of the New York-based drugmaker in September, when CEO Peter Dolan was fired after a botched deal that allowed a cheaper generic form of Bristol-Myers' (BMY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) anti-clot drug Plavix to be introduced in the United States.

Although a federal judge has halted continued shipments of the generic, continued sales of huge supplies of the generic already on the market will hurt Bristol-Myers profits and sales for months to come.

Cornelius said Bristol-Myers has already achieved its planned savings of $500 million from the first phase of a 2006-to-2008 cost-savings program and that the company is considering a "Phase Two" extension of the program. The savings will help Bristol-Myers boost research spending at least modestly next year, although the final budget has not yet been prepared, he said.

The company's finances, although hurt at least temporarily by the Plavix generic, will enable a continuation of Bristol-Myers' hefty dividend next year, he added.

"The dividend is solid for this year and next," he said.

Cornelius, the former chairman of Guidant Corp., said he remains committed to leading Bristol until it finds a new CEO, even if it takes well into next year.

"As of today, I am a happy camper," said Cornelius, who noted he had given up plans to head to his vacation home in Hawaii with his wife to take on the interim role.