diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index a8b0f322..8cc64886 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ test = [
     'mypy>=0.800',
 ]
 dev = [
+    'packaging',
     'setuptools>=60',
     'Cython~=3.0',
 ]
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 32d94ae8..7d4bb6c7 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -108,7 +108,8 @@ def finalize_options(self):
                         need_cythonize = True
 
         if need_cythonize:
-            import pkg_resources
+            from packaging.requirements import Requirement
+            from packaging.version import Version
 
             # Double check Cython presence in case setup_requires
             # didn't go into effect (most likely because someone
@@ -121,8 +122,8 @@ def finalize_options(self):
                     'please install {} to compile uvloop from source'.format(
                         CYTHON_DEPENDENCY))
 
-            cython_dep = pkg_resources.Requirement.parse(CYTHON_DEPENDENCY)
-            if Cython.__version__ not in cython_dep:
+            cython_dep = Requirement(CYTHON_DEPENDENCY)
+            if not cython_dep.specifier.contains(Version(Cython.__version__)):
                 raise RuntimeError(
                     'uvloop requires {}, got Cython=={}'.format(
                         CYTHON_DEPENDENCY, Cython.__version__