diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ee43c21..76fd46f 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,11 +1,16 @@
-from pip.req import parse_requirements
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 import uuid
 import os
 import re
 
-requirements = parse_requirements('requirements.txt', session=uuid.uuid1())
-install_requires = [str(r.req) for r in requirements]
+
+def parse_requirements(filename):
+    """ load requirements from a pip requirements file """
+    lineiter = (line.strip() for line in open(filename))
+    return [line for line in lineiter if line and not line.startswith("#")]
+
+
+install_requires = parse_requirements('requirements.txt')
 description = ("Flexer is a command line tool for interacting with nFlex "
                "and running nFlex modules locally.")
 with open('README.md') as f: