diff --git a/lib/fpm/package/pyfpm/get_metadata.py b/lib/fpm/package/pyfpm/get_metadata.py
index f2f305fd1d..7bf25a5382 100644
--- a/lib/fpm/package/pyfpm/get_metadata.py
+++ b/lib/fpm/package/pyfpm/get_metadata.py
@@ -2,11 +2,23 @@
 import json
 import re
 import time
+import pkg_resources
 
 # Note, the last time I coded python daily was at Google, so it's entirely
 # possible some of my techniques below are outdated or bad.
 # If you have fixes, let me know.
 
+def select_smallest(first, second):
+    first_operator, first_version = first
+    second_operator, second_version = second
+    if second_operator < first_operator:
+        return second
+    elif second_operator == first_operator and second_version < first_version:
+        return second
+    
+    return first
+
+
 class get_metadata(Command):
   description = "get package metadata"
   user_options = []
@@ -45,44 +57,17 @@ def run(self):
       data["architecture"] = "all"
     # end if
 
-    dependencies = None
-    try:
-      dependencies = self.distribution.install_requires
-    except:
-      pass
-
-    # In some cases (Mysql-Python) 'dependencies' is none, not empty.
-    if dependencies is None:
-      dependencies = []
-
-    # Some cases (like paramiko) dependencies is actually just a string, not a
-    # list
-    if isinstance(dependencies, str):
-      dependencies = [dependencies]
-
     final_deps = []
-    dep_re = re.compile("([^<>= ]+)(?:\s*([<>=]{1,2})\s*([^,]*))?(?:,\s*([<>=]{1,2})\s*(.*))?$")
-    for dep in dependencies:
-      # python deps are strings that look like:
-      # "packagename"
-      # "packagename >= version"
-      # Replace 'packagename' with 'python#{suffix}-packagename'
-      m = dep_re.match(dep)
-      if m is None:
-        print "Bad dep: %s" % dep
-        time.sleep(3)
-      elif m.groups()[1] is None:
-        name, cond, version = m.groups()[0], ">=", 0
-      else:
-        groups = m.groups()
-        name, cond, version = groups[0:3]
-        if groups[3] is not None:
-          final_deps.append("%s %s %s" % (groups[0], groups[3], groups[4]))
-        # end if
-      # end if
-
-      final_deps.append("%s %s %s" % (name, cond, version))
-    # end for i in dependencies
+    for dep in pkg_resources.parse_requirements(self.distribution.install_requires):        
+        try:
+            operator, version = reduce(select_smallest, dep.specs)
+            final_deps.append("%s %s %s" % (
+                dep.project_name,
+                "=" if operator == "==" else operator,
+                version
+            ))
+        except TypeError as e:
+            final_deps.append(dep.project_name)
 
     data["dependencies"] = final_deps