When Omar Barnett left Jamaica 20 years ago, little did he envision that he would have returned one day with plans to enter the US$152-billion global health tourism market – a far cry from his days hustling newspapers on the streets of Half-Way-Tree in St Andrew. But his journey to where he is now is one driven by determination to succeed. And though his business – Prospective Research Innovation – is not yet in Jamaica, Corporate Profile focuses on his journey, the highs and lows, hoping to inspire another generation of entrepreneurs to push on through even when backs are against the wall.

LAST year Elvira Guzman-Barnett, a Mexican American woman reached out to the Jamaica Observer as the director of branding and public relations at her husband’s company Prospective Research Innovation (PRI), prodding like any good public relations (PR) personnel would to get this reporter to tell her husband’s story as he prepares to invest in a medical tourism and research facility in Negril, Westmoreland.

One year later, both walked into the offices of this newspaper with the story of a young man who has opened a business in California to do medical research, putting him among what Guzman-Barnett said is the “one per cent”, her reference to people of colour who own businesses in that area.

“For myself, I’ve been in research for 20 plus years,” Barnett said as he set the stage for his story. “I started from the bottom, you know, work my way from advising patients to studies to moving further to conducting the studies with the patients, and then after 15 years in the field, I decided that I wanted to open my own research centre,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Barnett said one of the reasons behind his push to start his company was the lack of diversity in the ownership of medical research facilities, though most of the patients who are part of the research are either black or brown.

So venturing into business on his own, he started Prospective Research Innovation in 2014, and though he knew who to contact after more than a decade conducting the research, getting a foothold in the business was not going to be easy.

“Just like any other business it takes time. Even to get your first project takes time. We were a new company going against giants in the industry, but we never gave up,” Barnett added as he outlined that there were disappointments.

But the perseverance paid off for Barnett. One year after starting his company, while working still, but on significantly reduced hours, the first clinical trial was secured.

“It was down to a lot of hard work, but also God’s divine intervention,” he said.

Why he believes God’s divine intervention was also at work is because of how he secured the first trials.

“When you are starting out, you have to send applications to a million [pharmaceutical and biotech firms] just to get the one trial. Then one day someone reached out to me saying he received my communication regarding a certain project and asked if I was interested in participating, and I said yes, I was interested. But between me and you, I still don’t know if I had applied for that project in the beginning,” he reflected.

But securing the first clinical trial for his company was all Barnett wanted to do. He simply wanted to get his foot through the door and take it from there knowing that if he delivered as expected, he would be able to secure more medical research for his company in the future.

And that first project was critical for Barnett. During the period in which he was applying for projects, he was spending less time working, which meant less earnings.

“That was a struggle in itself. At that time I couldn’t pay for my car or my rent and stuff like that. It was hard. It was hard,” he said.

“In the US you need to ensure your credit [rating] is good. I was paying for a truck that I couldn’t afford anymore so I had to rent it out. Also, I had to rent out one of my rooms to make ends meet, even though I don’t like to live with room-mates,” he recalled.

But he said he was focused on his dream of owning and running his own business and was willing to make the sacrifices to get it done.

Despite the sacrifices, Barnett said his company was not picking up a lot of projects, but it was enough to sustain the fledgling business and keep it going.

Then 2020 came, and with it the novel coronavirus pandemic, and things changed for PRI.

“Before, Omar had one medical research study and after the pandemic we had 13 research studies,” Guzman-Barnett added.

While his company did not participate in any trials involving vaccines for the COVID-19 virus, Barnett said he helped to place emphasis on medical research and he got projects to research the effectiveness of newly developed drugs on cancer and epilepsy.

He said he has done research on behalf of companies such as Parexel, Sanofi, Johnson and Johnson, and GSK. He laughs now about the early days when he would drive around looking for doctors to ask them if they had spare rooms to rent at their practice so he could get a location from which to operate. At the time, he said, the equipment were all second-hand, given he barely had money. And while he was earning nothing, he still had to pay the rent for a year to ensure that if he ever got a call back for the projects he was applying for, he was prepared to take it on.

He was happy to secure his first project when he did, and said it was a character-building moment.

“When you are so happy for a project they get away with everything. If I knew then what I know now, I would have negotiated better.”

Early years

As he spoke, his attention turned to his early years.

Born and raised in Jamaica, Barnett said he first migrated to the United States with his father in 1989, but grew homesick quickly.

“My father recognised that and asked if I wanted to return to Jamaica and I said yes, and he sent me back the following year in 1990.” That return would see Barnett going to live with his mother in the gritty St Andrew neighbourhood of Seaview Gardens and for school he attended Calabar High School.

While at Calabar, Barnett said his fellow students thought he was well-off because his family was abroad and he could ask for money at any time.

But he said he was not one to do so and would rather earn for himself or save his lunch money to do what he wanted. Those savings were used in various ways to make money.

“I remember [for boys championships] I would buy up all these Champs tickets and go on the day of Champs and sell them outside the gate [at the National Stadium],” he said. In those days the high school athletic meet was not merged and the boys competed at a different time period from the girls.

He said, being an introvert, he had never told that story to anyone since adulthood. Another story he said he hadn’t told before was when he was a newspaper boy.

“After high school some of my friends were seeking a job but couldn’t get any. So we went to the Jamaica Observer and asked if we could sign up to distribute the newspaper and were successful. Then we would walk the streets of Half-Way-Tree to sell the paper. We did it for some time and it gave me extra money, which gave me the ability to contribute to the house,” he said. After that, he worked at a hardware store in the Half-Way-Tree area, but said he could not recall the name.

Then in 2000 he returned to the US after his father again filed for him. there he got odd jobs and sent himself to school to study biology, which landed him a job in medical research.

Transitioning to medical tourism

Having reflected on those years, he reminisced again on how he got to where he is now. In recent years, as more research projects were secured, Barnett said it also means he had to expand. From renting rooms from doctors and buying second-hand equipment to start, he said he now has three locations, all in California, and is looking to Jamaica for the next phase of expansion.

His reason for choosing Jamaica is simple. He believes he has something to offer after being inspired by Michael Lee-Chin, who he had watched in an interview talking about the untapped possibilities in medical tourism in Jamaica.

“I wanted to shed a light on Jamaica as another spot for all these biotech companies to come and contribute to the economy of Jamaica instead of just hotels and partying. There’s a big industry for medical tourism that Jamaica can tap into just as countries like Puerto Rico are doing.”

Barnett said he is now in negotiations to purchase a building in Negril, which he intends to renovate to fulfil the purpose.

“Right now we are still in talks but hoping to role out by the middle of next year,” he said. His wife said contact has already been made with entities such as Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) and other investors to get the project off the ground.

“For the centre in Jamaica we will be doing medical research and medical treatment. Our goal is to make this Caribbean wide and expand as far as we can. We want to go worldwide, but want to take the time. Jamaica will be the hub.”