diff --git a/libmc/__init__.py b/libmc/__init__.py
index 991e2be1..7ddd93bf 100644
--- a/libmc/__init__.py
+++ b/libmc/__init__.py
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@
     __file__ as _libmc_so_file
 )
 
-__VERSION__ = "1.4.15"
-__version__ = "1.4.15"
+__VERSION__ = "1.4.16"
+__version__ = "1.4.16"
 __author__ = "mckelvin"
 __email__ = "mckelvin@users.noreply.github.com"
 __date__ = "Fri Jun  7 06:16:00 2024 +0800"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 224ae135..de65dea9 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 import os
 import re
 import sys
-import pkg_resources
 import platform
 from distutils.sysconfig import get_config_var
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion
@@ -24,15 +23,6 @@
 ]
 
 
-def is_installed(requirement):
-    try:
-        pkg_resources.require(requirement)
-    except pkg_resources.ResolutionError:
-        return False
-    else:
-        return True
-
-
 # For mac, ensure extensions are built for macos 10.9 when compiling on a
 # 10.9 system or above, overriding distuitls behaviour which is to target
 # the version that python was built for. This may be overridden by setting
@@ -44,24 +34,6 @@ def is_installed(requirement):
     if python_target < LooseVersion('10.9') and current_system >= LooseVersion('10.9'):
         os.environ['MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET'] = '10.9'
 
-# Resolving Cython dependency via 'setup_requires' requires setuptools >= 18.0:
-# https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/commit/a811c089a4362c0dc6c4a84b708953dde9ebdbf8
-setuptools_req = "setuptools >= 18.0"
-if not is_installed(setuptools_req):
-    import textwrap
-    print(
-        textwrap.dedent(
-            """
-        setuptools >= 18.0 is required, and the dependency cannot be
-        automatically resolved with the version of setuptools that is
-        currently installed (%s).
-
-        you can upgrade setuptools:
-        $ pip install -U setuptools
-        """ % pkg_resources.get_distribution("setuptools").version),
-        file=sys.stderr)
-    exit(1)
-
 
 def find_version(*file_paths):
     with open(os.path.join(*file_paths)) as fhandler: