Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced deals on Monday to secure up to 190 million doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines from a quartet of pharmaceutical companies. Trudeau said the federal government has signed agreements with Johnson & Johnson for up to 38 million doses, Novavax Inc. for up to 76 million doses, Pfizer Inc. for a minimum of 20 million doses, and Moderna Inc. for up to 56 million doses of their respective vaccine candidates.

The federal government also disclosed it is in advanced negotiations with drug-maker AstraZeneca PLC, which is working on co-developing a vaccine with Oxford University.

The government originally announced deals with Pfizer and Moderna on August 5, but didn’t provide details on the number of doses at that time.

The federal government is acknowledging that competition to secure prospective vaccines is fierce as countries jockey to ensure they will be able to inoculate their populace once a treatment is available. In an interview on BNN Bloomberg, Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the high-stakes negotiations require a nimble approach as countries look to secure multiple deals.

“The negotiation is intense, complex and delicate, and it varies from supplier to supplier,” Anand said. “So what we have done is to be very aggressive in these negotiations, indicating the delivery timelines as being very important for Canada.”

The government is also investing $126 million over the next two years to build a facility that could produce up to two million doses of any potential vaccine per month, according to a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office. The federal government will then pay $20 million per year to cover operating costs.

In a release, Trudeau said the federal government is casting as wide a net as possible to secure a potential vaccine, and will continue to negotiate and secure other agreements with major pharmaceutical companies.

“As we continue to work together to limit the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health of Canadians, as well as its social and economic effects, we must also maximize our chances of defeating the virus,” he said. “To do this, we need to invest in the development of several promising vaccines and ensure that we can manufacture and distribute the vaccine to as many Canadians as possible, as quickly as possible. That is how we will move forward on a sustainable path to a full recovery.”

Novavax, which currently has its treatment in phase two of clinical trials in order to determine efficacy and safety, announced the arrangement with Canada earlier Monday morning. The company reported its phase-one trials were “well-tolerated” and elicited a strong antibody response.