diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 3b6cf9c26f..35d4858f7d 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 [build-system]
 # Minimum requirements for the build system to execute.
 requires = [
-  "setuptools>=45",
+  "setuptools>=42",
   "pybind11>=2.4",
   "wheel",
   "cmake>=3.12",
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5a3d5ce40f..5243009a75 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ def build_extension(self, ext: CMakeExtension) -> None:
 # logic and declaration, and simpler if you include description/version in a file.
 setup(
     name="highspy",
-    version="1.6.6.dev2",
+    version="1.6.8",
     description = "A thin set of pybind11 wrappers to HiGHS",
     author="HiGHS developers",
     author_email="highsopt@gmail.com",