diff --git a/tools/run_tests/build_python.sh b/tools/run_tests/build_python.sh
index c4b5d98a53b298831e50d6d6b22199a308a96918..727b11e273d8d362166a0d135c5872970116dd18 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/build_python.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/build_python.sh
@@ -155,7 +155,9 @@ pip_install_dir() {
   cd $PWD
 }
 
-$VENV_PYTHON -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools
+$VENV_PYTHON -m pip install --upgrade pip
+# TODO(https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/709) get the latest setuptools
+$VENV_PYTHON -m pip install setuptools==25.1.1
 $VENV_PYTHON -m pip install cython
 pip_install_dir $ROOT
 $VENV_PYTHON $ROOT/tools/distrib/python/make_grpcio_tools.py