diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-sqlalchemy/setup.cfg b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-sqlalchemy/setup.cfg
index 0fb5b591ad..a9b80a104a 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-sqlalchemy/setup.cfg
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-sqlalchemy/setup.cfg
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ install_requires =
     opentelemetry-api ~= 1.3
     opentelemetry-semantic-conventions == 0.24b0
     opentelemetry-instrumentation == 0.24b0
+    packaging >= 21.0
     wrapt >= 1.11.2
 
 [options.extras_require]