diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 122afcf..fb9d088 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 0.10.0 (unreleased)
 ===================
 
+- Dropped ``distutils`` as build dependency. [#47]
+
 0.9.0 (2021-09-21)
 ==================
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..590e0b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools>=30.3.0",
+            "setuptools_scm",
+            "wheel"]
+build-backend = 'setuptools.build_meta'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index bdd41cf..92354ee 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,14 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
-import sys
-import setuptools
-from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 from setuptools import setup
 
-# Setuptools 30.3.0 or later is needed for setup.cfg options to be used
-if LooseVersion(setuptools.__version__) < LooseVersion('30.3.0'):
-    sys.stderr.write("ERROR: pytest-astropy requires setuptools 30.3.0 or "
-                     "later (found {0})".format(setuptools.__version__))
-    sys.exit(1)
-
 setup(use_scm_version=True)