Paul Arthur Hooper was an executive vice president of Eisai Europe, a pharmaceutical company. He was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex in 1952. His mother’s maiden name was Delaney. He qualified in dentistry from the Royal Dental Hospital in 1976 and went on to study medicine at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, with the aim of becoming an oral surgeon. He gained his MB BS in 1982. He became a fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1984. After a year as a senior house officer in ENT surgery, he decided to join the pharmaceutical company Roche. He began as a medical adviser and was later promoted to human resources director. In 1996 he spent a few months at the Medicines Control Agency before joining Eisai and becoming the general manager of Eisai UK. In 2007 he was appointed as the executive vice president of Eisai Europe. With Pfizer, co-promoters of the drug Aricept, used to treat symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Hooper led a legal challenge against a ruling by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to restrict the availability of the drug through the NHS to those in the later stages of the disease. After a judicial review reached a qualified conclusion in favour of NICE, the court of appeal ruled in favour of the drug companies and campaigners. The verdict was seen as a major victory for the Alzheimer’s patients dependent on the drug. In his spare time, Hooper was interested in music, sport, particularly football, and military history. He ran six marathons, raising money for Alzheimer’s charities. In 1985 he married Nina Rosowsky, a dental surgeon. They had two children, Jamie and Kathryn. Hooper died suddenly on 29 January 2008 of heart failure at the age of 55. He was survived by his family.