By MELODY PETERSEN

he chief executive of Wyeth, Robert A. Essner, criticized the media yesterday for what he termed its "sensationalizing" of a study that found that the company's hormone replacement therapy, Prempro, did more harm than good.

"Once the media sensation over the study subsides, the data will speak for themselves and hormone replacement therapy will remain an important part of women's health care," Mr. Essner said in a conference call with analysts.

Another drug company, Bristol-Myers Squibb, suffered a 3 percent drop in its stock yesterday after its earnings fell short of Wall Street forecasts and it reported that the excess inventories of its products at wholesalers were higher than it had estimated. Bristol-Myers also said that its top research scientist, Dr. Peter S. Ringrose, was leaving, continuing the exodus from its executive ranks and raising more questions about the drugs it is developing.

Wyeth's shares tumbled last week when researchers announced that they had halted a long-term study of Prempro, one of its top-selling products, after finding it caused small increases in breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes and blood clots.

Mr. Essner said the company could not yet estimate what might happen to sales of Prempro, which accounted for $900 million of Wyeth's revenue last year. But he said that even if Wyeth lost all Prempro sales, which was unlikely, revenue would still grow if its other products, like Effexor, an antidepressant, continued to sell at their present rate. "Wyeth is much more than a one-product company," he said.

Mr. Essner also said that he did not think that the lawsuits filed against the company on behalf of women who took Prempro would be successful. "The vast majority of women who unfortunately develop breast cancer or cardiovascular disease would have done so regardless of whether or not they took H.R.T.," he said, referring to hormone replacement therapy. He added that the risk of breast cancer and other possible side effects had long been included on the drug's label.

Wyeth said yesterday that its net income for the second quarter rose 26 percent, to $599.9 million, or 45 cents a share, from $477 million, or 36 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $3.5 billion, from $3.2 billion.

Bristol-Myers said its net income in the second quarter fell 63 percent. Net income dropped to $440 million, or 23 cents a share, from $1.2 billion, or 61 cents, a year earlier. Sales fell 14 percent, to $4.05 billion, from $4.71 billion the year before.