Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has officially refused to subsidize the hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug Sovaldi from Gilead Sciences because it claims the drug is too expensive to treat all the people who need it, news.com.au reports.

Neighboring Fiji could have access to the $84,000 per-treatment drug before Australia, thanks to special allowances that were made for providing cheaper, generic versions of the medicine to the world’s poorest countries.

But in Australia, where the hep C drug is offered at full price, Sovaldi could cost health officials between $1.3 billion and $2 billion to treat every HCV-positive patient. It is estimated that 230,000 Australians are living with the virus.

Gilead asserts that since Sovaldi works far faster than older hep C treatments—just 12 weeks as opposed to the up to 44 weeks interferon takes—and is also far more effective than anything else on the market, the drug will save money for health care systems around the world in the long run.