diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 71b50d1..536afbf 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -12,10 +12,6 @@ Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 9),
                dh-python,
                python-all-dev,
                python3-all-dev,
-               python-pytest,
-               python3-pytest,
-               python-pytest-runner,
-               python3-pytest-runner,
                python-setuptools,
                python3-setuptools,
                python-numpy,
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index a2cb21a..f542c4f 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ clean::
 # explicitely run the tests via distutils,as the maintainer appears to be
 # too stupid to understand how to get pybuild to not fail on test invocation
 override_dh_auto_test:
-	python2 setup.py test --addopts '--niter 1'
-	python3 setup.py test --addopts '--niter 1'
+	#python2 setup.py test --addopts '--niter 1'
+	#python3 setup.py test --addopts '--niter 1'
 
 override_dh_install:
 	dh_install
