Bristol-Myers Squibb Co on Tuesday said its first-quarter profit slipped 3 percent, as negative foreign exchange factors and falling sales of its Erbitux cancer medicine more than offset higher revenue from other medicines.

But the New York drugmaker narrowly beat Wall Street earnings expectations due to cost controls that boosted profit margins, and the company reaffirmed its full-year and longer-term earnings forecasts.

Bristol-Myers said it earned $638 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with $661 million, or 33 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding special items, Bristol-Myers earned 48 cents per share. Analysts on average expected 47 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company said sales rose 3 percent to $5.02 billion, about $125 million shy of Wall Street expectations.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

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