Opioids are prescribed less frequently than they were severalyears ago, but the drugs are still too easy to obtain and are takenby too many people for far too long, according to U.S. healthofficials.

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The amount of opioid painkillers prescribed in the U.S. peakedin 2010 and declined each year through 2015, according to ananalysis released by the Centers for Disease Control on Thursday.Despite that drop, opioids are prescribed about three times as muchas they were in 1999, with use varying widely depending ongeographic area, the agency said.

“With opioid medication, we’re still seeing too many get toomuch for too long,” said acting CDC Director Anne Schuchat onThursday on a call with reporters.

Of the more than 50,000 drug-related deaths in the U.S. in 2015,close to two-thirds involved opioids, according to the CDC, andapproximately half of opioid-related deaths involved a prescriptionpainkiller. CDC researchers estimated that about two million peoplein the U.S. have an addiction disorder tied to prescriptionopioids.

Off the shelves

The CDC’s report came as Endo International Plc said that itplans to halt U.S. sales of its powerful opioid painkiller OpanaER, which had been designed to thwart abuse but wound up causing anoutbreak of disease among people who injected it intravenously withshared needles.

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In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked Endo tostop sales of the painkiller, the first time the agency has takensuch a step for an opioid. While Opana ER was approved by the FDAfor pain relief, it had become a favorite of people with opioidaddiction. After Endo reformulated the drug to try and reduce itspotential for abuse, many drug users went from crushing andsnorting the pill to injecting it.

That led to “a serious outbreak of HIV and hepatitis C,” the FDAsaid in a statement last month requesting that the product bewithdrawn. An FDA spokesman declined to comment on Thursday.

Related: Mixed results in reduction of opioid use amonginjured workers

Opana sales totaled $158.9 million in 2016, 4 percent of thecompany’s revenue. The Dublin, Ireland-based company said in astatement it expects to incur a pretax impairment charge ofapproximately $20 million in the second quarter of 2017 related tothe move. Shares were down 2.2 percent at $11.14 at 3:51 p.m. inNew York.

Endo “has taken significant steps over the years to combatmisuse and abuse” and its decision to remove Opana ER doesn’t meanit is no longer safe or effective when taken as prescribed, thecompany said in its statement. The manufacturer said it plans towork with the FDA to minimize disruption in treatment forpatients.

Top priority

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said last month that the FDAbelieves it has the legal authority to look at not just opioiddrugs’ risks and benefits in legitimate patients, but also at thedrugs’ potential for illicit use. He has said the opioid crisiswould be the agency’s top priority, and he set up a steeringcommittee to explore policies to reduce opioid use.

A broader push against opioid abuse is beginning to get tractionin the U.S. More than 20 states, counties and cities have sued drugcompanies in the past year, claiming they fueled a public-healthcrisis with misleading marketing and aggressive distribution ofopioids. And the Trump administration has its own panel, withHealth and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in Tennessee onThursday learning more about the crisis.

Economists at Goldman Sachs estimated in a note Thursday thatthe total cost of the opioid epidemic for the U.S. economy was$78.5 billion in 2013. The Great Recession likely worsened the drugcrisis, but the growth in opioid deaths preceded the economicdownturn connected to the 2008 housing bust, according to thereport.

“State-level data suggest that while the recession worsened theopioid epidemic, longer-run economic trends and non-economicfactors were probably more important,” the Goldman economistswrote. “After all, the crisis predated the recession and hascontinued unabated as the unemployment rate has declined.”

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