WASHINGTON — Martin Shkreli, the former drug executive who became the poster boy for extreme drug price increases, held his tongue as members of Congress blasted him at a hearing Thursday — but he managed to enrage the lawmakers even more as he smirked his way through the hearing.

“It’s not funny, Mr. Shkreli. People are dying, and they’re getting sicker and sicker,’’ Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, told Shkreli as he grinned during the congressman’s opening statement.

Shkreli’s lawyer later called him a “hero’’ — and insisted he would be judged that way by history.

The appearance by Shkreli, who garnered nationwide attention after raising the price of a decades-old drug known as Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent, was the highlight of a congressional hearing that managed to explore the complicated reality of drug pricing in the United States.

The session also dealt with the latest efforts to reduce the backlog of unapproved generic drugs — which Republicans hope to reduce as a way to provide patients with cheaper options.

As expected, though, Shkreli stole the show.

Shkreli — who stepped down late last year as chief executive ­officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals — stuck to his script, invoking the Fifth Amendment when the questioning turned to him.

“On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question,’’ Shkreli said, over and over.

Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform, tried to ask Shkreli what he would say to “that single, pregnant woman with AIDS … who might need Daraprim to ­survive.’’

Again, Shkreli took the Fifth.

Chaffetz eventually dismissed Shkreli after he and other ­lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to get him to respond to ­questions. The one question he did answer: He acknowledged that a committee member had pronounced his name correctly.

Shkreli had to take the Fifth because of an unrelated securities fraud charge he’s facing, his new lawyer, New York defense ­attorney Benjamin Brafman, said — not because of contempt for the committee.

And his smirks, Brafman said, were a result of “nervous energy by an individual who would very much like to explain what happened, but has agreed to listen to his lawyer.’’

Minutes later, however, Shkreli couldn’t resist one last shot at the committee, firing off a tweet calling lawmakers ­“imbeciles.’’

Shkreli was indicted in December on securities fraud charges — allegedly using stock from Retrophin, a drug company he founded, to pay off debts in a financially troubled hedge fund. He resigned as Turing’s chief executive officer after his arrest.

At the hearing, Chaffetz pointed to newly released documents from a committee investigation that showed that Turing approved raises for its officers at a board meeting and spent thousands of dollars on chartered yachts, celebrity performances, and a “fireworks package.’’

One employee — whose name was redacted — was given a raise of 400 percent, from $160,000 per year to $800,000, according to minutes from a 2015 meeting. Two others saw their salaries hiked to $600,000. One had previously made $275,000 and the other $250,000.

Nancy Retzlaff, Turing’s chief commercial officer, insisted that “we invest 60 percent of our net revenues’’ in research and development, more than most drug companies spend.

But Chaffetz accused Turing of “lying’’ about what he suspected was its real motive: profit.

He played a video of Shkreli saying, in a local television interview: “We take all of our cash, all of our profits, and spend it on research for these patients.’’

Spending 60 percent of the revenues on research is “not all the cash,’’ Chaffetz told Retzlaff.

Retzlaff allowed that “of course we expect to make a ­profit’’ — but insisted that Turing provided enough financial ­assistance to vulnerable patients, especially those who were ­uninsured, that many only paid “pennies’’ for Daraprim.