diff --git a/spacy/cli/download.py b/spacy/cli/download.py
index 0230e272d..af132bbbe 100644
--- a/spacy/cli/download.py
+++ b/spacy/cli/download.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import sys
 from wasabi import msg
 
 from .. import about
+from ..util import is_package
 
 
 def download(
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ def download(
     flag is set, the command expects the full model name with version.
     For direct downloads, the compatibility check will be skipped.
     """
-    if not require_package("spacy") and "--no-deps" not in pip_args:
+    if not is_package("spacy") and "--no-deps" not in pip_args:
         msg.warn(
             "Skipping model package dependencies and setting `--no-deps`. "
             "You don't seem to have the spaCy package itself installed "
@@ -45,21 +46,6 @@ def download(
             "Download and installation successful",
             f"You can now load the model via spacy.load('{model_name}')",
         )
-        # If a model is downloaded and then loaded within the same process, our
-        # is_package check currently fails, because pkg_resources.working_set
-        # is not refreshed automatically (see #3923). We're trying to work
-        # around this here be requiring the package explicitly.
-        require_package(model_name)
-
-
-def require_package(name):
-    try:
-        import pkg_resources
-
-        pkg_resources.working_set.require(name)
-        return True
-    except:  # noqa: E722
-        return False
 
 
 def get_json(url, desc):
diff --git a/spacy/util.py b/spacy/util.py
index 5a7c633fa..41af881c9 100644
--- a/spacy/util.py
+++ b/spacy/util.py
@@ -341,14 +341,11 @@ def is_package(name):
     name (unicode): Name of package.
     RETURNS (bool): True if installed package, False if not.
     """
-    import pkg_resources
-
-    name = name.lower()  # compare package name against lowercase name
-    packages = pkg_resources.working_set.by_key.keys()
-    for package in packages:
-        if package.lower().replace("-", "_") == name:
-            return True
-    return False
+    try:
+        importlib_metadata.distribution(name)
+        return True
+    except:  # noqa: E722
+        return False
 
 
 def get_package_path(name):