diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-pypi-package.yml b/.github/workflows/build-pypi-package.yml
index 19d76f1..cc49db4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-pypi-package.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-pypi-package.yml
@@ -25,7 +25,9 @@ jobs:
           build
           --user
       - name: Build a binary wheel and a source tarball
-        run: python3 -m build --sdist
+        run:
+          export IGNORE_MISSING_RNALIB=1
+          python3 -m build --sdist
       - name: Store the distribution packages
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
         with:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8c67dc1..f6ba79f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools", "wheel", "numpy>=1.19.0", "Cython>=0.29.30", "versioneer-518", "pybind11"]
+requires = ["setuptools", "wheel", "numpy>=1.19.0", "Cython>=0.29.30", "versioneer-518", "pybind11", "viennarna"]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 0b5da6f..f2037bb 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -31,11 +31,17 @@
 python_l = f"python{svi[0]}.{svi[1]}"
 
 RNALIB = os.path.join(prefix, "lib", "libRNA.a")
+
+IGNORE_MISSING_RNALIB = bool(os.environ.get('IGNORE_MISSING_RNALIB', 0))
 if not os.path.exists(RNALIB):
-    raise FileNotFoundError(f"Not able to find ViennaRNA RNAlib installation under {RNALIB}. This version of RNAdist requires ViennaRNA "
-                            "to be installed. You can easily install it using Conda:\n"
-                            "conda install -c bioconda viennarna"
-                            )
+    message = f"Not able to find ViennaRNA RNAlib installation under {RNALIB}. This version of RNAdist requires ViennaRNA "
+    "to be installed. You can easily install it using Conda:\n"
+    "conda install -c bioconda viennarna"
+    if IGNORE_MISSING_RNALIB:
+        print(message)
+        print("While you can run this script you wont be able to install the package like this")
+    else:
+        raise FileNotFoundError(message)
 if not os.path.exists(os.path.join(prefix, "lib", python_l, "site-packages", "RNA")):
     raise ImportError("Not able to find ViennaRNA python package in your current environment."
                       "Please install it e.g. via Conda\n"