IKERVIS eye drops

[Sharon]

I just heard of these eye drops called Ikervis which contain 1% Cyclosporin.
This is the same active ingredient as Restasis which only contains 0.05% Cyclosporin.
That means that Ikervis should be 20 times (!!!!!) more potent than Restasis. 
Since Restasis only gives me a minor improvement, could I expect x20 that improvement with Ikervis?
I do find it strange nobody has suggested this treatment to me before as I've seen countless eye doctors
over the years for dry eyes.
Anybody try this or have any thoughts on the matter?

[Polly]

Restasis is 0.5mg/ml cyclosporin; Ikervis is 1.0mg/ml. I think it's called Restasis 0.05% because one drop will give you 0.05mg of cyclosporin.

Ikervis is made by Santen and was approved for use in the EU in 2015. I don't think it's available in the US yet.

There is an alternative to Restasis available in the US, it's Xiidra. It's supposed to work for some people who don't find Restasis effective, I think. I got a prescription for it once but never filled it because it was expensive and I thought I was doing okay with my lubricating drops.

[Sharon]

Everywhere I have read it only says Restasis is 0.05% Cyclosporin.
Could you post a link where it says 0.5%mg/ml?
Pharmacies can compound whatever strength Cyclosporin you need in an eye drop.
Xiidra is not available yet in my country.

[Pete0211]

www.allergan.com/assets/pdf/restasis_pi.pdf shows the .5mg/ml formulation. It's an absolute weight per ml. The percentage is "percent of solution" which means .5mg/ml = .05% concentration within the solution, so 99.95 percent of the solution is the inert ingredients.

[Sharon]

Ok, thanks. So in that case Ikervis is only twice as strong as Restasis.