Prospects are bright for health cooperation among BRICS nations as they work to help their combined population of 3 billion people, China's top health official told health ministers from the group at a major gathering in Tianjin in July.

Over the past seven years, health cooperation among the five countries has become more extensive, Li Bin, minister of China's Health and Family Planning Commission, said at the BRICS Health Ministers Meeting.

The first such gathering, which marked the beginning of BRICS health cooperation, was held in July 2011 in Beijing.