BEIJING (AP) — The world's top emerging countries banded together Monday to help fight diseases in the poorest countries, pledging to transfer technologies to the developing world to help supply cheap and effective drugs.

Health ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — the so-called BRICS countries — meeting in Beijing said their collaboration would help strengthen health systems and increase access to affordable medicines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis.

South African Health Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi said the BRICS countries could influence global attitudes on access to cheap medicine in the developing world. BRICS countries account for 40 percent of the world's population.