Several dozen people protested around London earlier today over the ongoing refusal by Johnson & Johnson to partipicate in the Medicines Patent Pool, which is an initiative designed to streamline patent licensing for producing generics of patented HIV meds and offering lower prices in poor countries.

Unlike several other drugmakers that have agreed to hold talks, Johnson & Johnson’s Tibotec unit has not agreed to negotiate and recently struck a separate licensing deal with several generic drugmakers to make, market and distribute an investigational an HIV med in India, sub-Saharan Africa and Least Developed Countries. The move has been interpreted by some as a way to undermine the MPP initiative (see this).

The talks with the other drugmakers, meanwhile, got under way recently after the MPP, which last year received a boost when the National Institutes for Health licensed a med to the organiziation (read here), released letters written to drugmakers - big and small - that make HIV/AIDS meds and upbraided them for failing to participate. J&J, however, had still refused to budge.

And so the Stop AIDS Campaign held a ‘Patent Pool Party’ by donning bathing suits outside J&J offices and pharmacies in London to protest. “The decision by Johnson & Johnson flies in the face of their public image as a trustworthy friend of parents. By refusing the invitation to join talks with the Patent Pool, they are closing the door on an initiative which could help countless parents and babies access their life-saving HIV drugs,” says Stop AIDS Campaign coordinator Diarmaid McDonald. He adds, however, that J&J has promised to meet with the group. We asked J&J for comment and will update you accordingly.

UPDATE: On Thursday night, March 31, a J&J spokeswoman sent us this note: “On January 31, we responded to MPPF and indicated that we generally support the MPPF and its goals, but are not starting negotiations for our antiretroviral compounds at this time. We have been in discussions with the MPPF regarding the development of a patent pool for HIV treatments and we continue to have ongoing dialogue.”