diff --git a/services/mesh-forwarder/Dockerfile b/services/mesh-forwarder/Dockerfile
index 408598f2..1412d75e 100644
--- a/services/mesh-forwarder/Dockerfile
+++ b/services/mesh-forwarder/Dockerfile
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ COPY . .
 RUN python -m venv /opt/venv
 ENV PATH="/opt/venv/bin:$PATH"
 
-RUN pip install pipenv
+RUN pip install --upgrade pip pipenv setuptools
 
 # Install dependencies into the current env instead of creating another venv
 RUN pipenv install --deploy --system
diff --git a/services/mesh-forwarder/pyproject.toml b/services/mesh-forwarder/pyproject.toml
index b0471b7f..07de284a 100644
--- a/services/mesh-forwarder/pyproject.toml
+++ b/services/mesh-forwarder/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 [build-system]
 requires = ["setuptools", "wheel"]
-build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta:__legacy__"
\ No newline at end of file
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
\ No newline at end of file