diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d457cd1a5ce..0799b5ad0ca 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -87,10 +87,10 @@ def _parse_requirements_file(file_path):
 _deps = [
     "numpy>=1.16.3",
     "onnx>=1.5.0,<1.15.0",
-    "pydantic>=1.8.2",
+    "pydantic>=1.8.2,<2.0.0",
     "requests>=2.0.0",
     "tqdm>=4.0.0",
-    "protobuf>=3.12.2,<=3.20.1",
+    "protobuf>=3.12.2",
     "click>=7.1.2,!=8.0.0",  # latest version < 8.0 + blocked version with reported bug
 ]
 _nm_deps = [f"{'sparsezoo' if is_release else 'sparsezoo-nightly'}~={version_base}"]
@@ -120,7 +120,6 @@ def _parse_requirements_file(file_path):
 _server_deps = [
     "uvicorn>=0.15.0",
     "fastapi>=0.70.0,<0.87.0",
-    "pydantic>=1.8.2",
     "requests>=2.26.0",
     "python-multipart>=0.0.5",
     "prometheus-client>=0.14.1",
diff --git a/src/deepsparse/transformers/__init__.py b/src/deepsparse/transformers/__init__.py
index f8fd4ecc823..7546184c27f 100644
--- a/src/deepsparse/transformers/__init__.py
+++ b/src/deepsparse/transformers/__init__.py
@@ -41,9 +41,9 @@
 def _check_transformers_install():
     import transformers as _transformers
 
-    if not _transformers.NM_INTEGRATED:
+    if not getattr(_transformers, "NM_INTEGRATED", False):
         _LOGGER.warning(
-            "the neuralmagic fork of transformers may not be installed. it can be "
+            "The neuralmagic fork of transformers may not be installed. It can be "
             f"installed via `pip install {nm_transformers}`"
         )