You are mixing up your facts. Patriots are primarily being use against ballistic missiles, not Shahed drones.
Shahed type drones are killed with APKWS missiles. A single fighter jet can carry ~40 of these missiles and the unit cost is similar to a Shahed. APKWS has evolved a lot during its 15 years in use and the new generations are expected to come in around ~$10k each, cheaper than the drones they are designed to destroy. You can put an APKWS on many different things. The US annual production rate is 35,000 but that could be increased several-fold if needed (it is based on a missile of which the US produces 200,000 per year). The Europeans are working on their own version of this.
These have been used in the Middle East for a long time. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and Israel all have orders for 10,000+ APKWS missiles each, so clearly they are effective.
The unit cost has been tipping toward the defender but the systems are not widely distributed yet. More effective defenses require more expensive drones e.g. you can't build an effective anti-ship missile (a type of jet-powered drone) for less than a couple million dollars because anything cheaper has too low of a probability of success.
Shahed type drones are killed with APKWS missiles. A single fighter jet can carry ~40 of these missiles and the unit cost is similar to a Shahed. APKWS has evolved a lot during its 15 years in use and the new generations are expected to come in around ~$10k each, cheaper than the drones they are designed to destroy. You can put an APKWS on many different things. The US annual production rate is 35,000 but that could be increased several-fold if needed (it is based on a missile of which the US produces 200,000 per year). The Europeans are working on their own version of this.
These have been used in the Middle East for a long time. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and Israel all have orders for 10,000+ APKWS missiles each, so clearly they are effective.
The unit cost has been tipping toward the defender but the systems are not widely distributed yet. More effective defenses require more expensive drones e.g. you can't build an effective anti-ship missile (a type of jet-powered drone) for less than a couple million dollars because anything cheaper has too low of a probability of success.