The 173 million Canadian (US$132 million) Medicago agreement comes after Ottawa signed agreements with AstraZeneca, Sanofi and GSK, Novavax, Johnson.
There are 38 million Canadians, of whom they would possibly want two doses of any successful candidate vaccine.
“When a vaccine is ready, so will Canada,” Trudeau said at a press conference.
The Medicago vaccine, in Quebec City, is developed on the company’s exclusive plant production platform.
It is, according to one statement, “the first evolving candidate vaccine in the country obtained by the Government of Canada”.
Pharmaceutical corporations would submit knowledge of protection and efficacy at the end of clinical trials for evaluation through Health Canada, which can take years.
But hope to pass them on to Canadians as soon as possible, given the fatal risk and disastrous economic consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic.