Vevizye for dry eye: my first impressions of the new water-free ciclosporin drop

If you've read my iKervis piece, you'll know my history with ciclosporin drops has been rocky. The science is sound (ciclosporin calms the inflammation driving my dry eye), but every version I'd tried stung so much that I could never stay on it long enough to feel the benefit. So when a brand-new one came along, I was very keen to try it.

What Vevizye actually is

Vevizye is ciclosporin 0.1%, the same active drug as iKervis, but in a completely different, water-free formulation. It's made by Théa and Novaliq, and it was approved across the EU in September 2024. In the US the same drop is sold as Vevye.

The clever part is the delivery. Instead of being watery, it uses an oil-like, water-free base that's designed to sit on the surface of your eye for longer and carry the ciclosporin in more gently. And practically, it comes in a dropper bottle that lasts about a month, not the fiddly single-use vials iKervis comes in.

What I'd already tried (and why I was desperate for this)

Before Vevizye, I'd been through iKervis: the sting was the reason I kept giving up on it. My optometrist, Mr Matheson, then gave me a couple of free vials of Cequa (another ciclosporin) to see if it stung any less for me. It didn't. It was about the same. So by the time Vevizye came along, I'd basically concluded that stinging was just the price of ciclosporin, and that I might never manage to stick with it.

The big difference: it barely stings

And this is the headline. Vevizye has been much, much less irritating than iKervis or Cequa. There's maybe a very minor bit of something as it goes in, but honestly nothing compared to the others. It's a totally different experience.

There's a slightly strange side to the oil-based formula, mind you: sometimes I can't really feel that it's gone in at all. It doesn't have that obvious "a drop just went in my eye" sensation you get with a normal water-based drop. It took a little getting used to, but I'll happily take "can't feel it" over "stings like mad."

Why "it doesn't sting" matters more than it sounds

Here's the thing people underestimate. Ciclosporin can take months to work: you have to use it consistently, night after night, before you know if it's helping. And you simply won't keep doing that if every single dose hurts. Tolerability is what makes consistency possible.

That's exactly where I've failed before: I never held out long enough, because of the sting. So for me, the real promise of Vevizye isn't that it's a different drug; it's that it might be the first version I can actually keep using long enough to find out whether ciclosporin works for me. The dropper bottle helps too: it's far more convenient than carrying a strip of vials around, especially as I travel a lot.

Is it working? Honestly, too early to say

I'll be completely straight with you: I've only been on Vevizye for about two weeks, so it is far too early to say whether it's improving my dry eye itself. Ciclosporin needs time, and I'm not going to pretend I've had some overnight miracle. What I can say already is that on comfort and ease of use, it's a big step up, and that alone is a meaningful change for someone like me. I'll come back and update this piece as the weeks go on and I know more.

Getting hold of it

Mr Matheson suggested I buy a bottle to trial, which cost me £92 for one bottle, about a month's worth, so roughly the same as iKervis was on a private prescription. If it suits me, the plan is for him to write to my GP, the same route that got my iKervis onto an NHS prescription, so I can hopefully get Vevizye funded rather than paying that every month. Fingers crossed. (If you're paying privately for ciclosporin, it's always worth asking your specialist whether they'll write to your GP.)

My first-impressions verdict

On the two things I can judge this early, comfort and convenience, Vevizye is the best ciclosporin drop I've used by a mile. Whether it actually helps my eyes is the bigger question, and I don't have that answer yet. But because it doesn't sting, I finally believe I'll stick with it long enough to find out, which, after years of giving up, feels genuinely hopeful. Watch this space; I'll update as I go.