diff --git a/tools/run_tests/build_python.sh b/tools/run_tests/build_python.sh
index 13d745d14fef1cf6b0c7574907e0a0462662a40e..83e456d3ed202b8b46e3b6e6b7576a52e344ac99 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/build_python.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/build_python.sh
@@ -168,7 +168,9 @@ 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