diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 23df776..c842f82 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ LABEL MAINTAINER="Pradeep Bashyal"
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
-ARG PY_ARD_VERSION=1.5.3
+ARG PY_ARD_VERSION=1.5.4
 
 COPY requirements.txt /app
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade pip && \
diff --git a/api-spec.yaml b/api-spec.yaml
index a9a4a84..88b17b3 100644
--- a/api-spec.yaml
+++ b/api-spec.yaml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ openapi: 3.0.3
 info:
   title: ARD Reduction
   description: Reduce to ARD Level
-  version: "1.5.3"
+  version: "1.5.4"
 servers:
   - url: 'http://localhost:8080'
 tags:
diff --git a/pyard/__init__.py b/pyard/__init__.py
index 4672fad..67f9863 100644
--- a/pyard/__init__.py
+++ b/pyard/__init__.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 from .misc import get_imgt_db_versions as db_versions
 
 __author__ = """NMDP Bioinformatics"""
-__version__ = "1.5.3"
+__version__ = "1.5.4"
 
 
 def init(
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 75d62c0..d82c029 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+setuptools==75.8.0
 toml==0.10.2
 numpy==2.0.2
 pandas==2.2.2
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 2f89ff7..a916518 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [bumpversion]
-current_version = 1.5.3
+current_version = 1.5.4
 commit = True
 tag = True
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 6f0f9db..cc7b1f7 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name="py-ard",
-    version="1.5.3",
+    version="1.5.4",
     description="ARD reduction for HLA with Python",
     long_description=readme,
     long_description_content_type="text/markdown",