diff --git a/modules/bindings/pymod/msms.py b/modules/bindings/pymod/msms.py
index fef9f15521856020fb3b6e05e94eaa7590bd3857..dc3b8590626aad471534d47ce660220d616800d9 100644
--- a/modules/bindings/pymod/msms.py
+++ b/modules/bindings/pymod/msms.py
@@ -38,21 +38,6 @@ class MsmsProcessError(Exception):
     return repr(self.returncode)
 
 
-def GetVersion(msms_exe=None, msms_env=None):
-  msms_executable = _GetExecutable(msms_exe, msms_env)
-  command = "%s" % (msms_executable)
-  proc = subprocess.Popen(command, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-  stdout_value, stderr_value = proc.communicate()
-
-  version = ""
-  for l in stdout_value.splitlines():
-    if l[0:4]=='MSMS':
-      version = l.split(' ')[1]
-      return version
-  if version=="":
-    LogWarning('Could not parse MSMS version string')
-    return
-
 ## \brief Method to check if MSMS executable is present
 #
 # \param msms_exe Explicit path to msms executable
@@ -135,7 +120,7 @@ def _RunMSMS(command):
   #check for successful completion of msms
   if proc.returncode!=0:
     print "WARNING: msms error\n", stdout_value
-    raise MsmsProcessError(proc.returncode, command)
+    raise subprocess.MsmsProcessError(proc.returncode, command)
 
   return stdout_value
   
diff --git a/modules/bindings/tests/test_msms.py b/modules/bindings/tests/test_msms.py
index 054a63cffa472d01fbef5d5cd20289cd0a409fb6..5720372c050568f6097f6f55087c159ec2b34f17 100755
--- a/modules/bindings/tests/test_msms.py
+++ b/modules/bindings/tests/test_msms.py
@@ -33,15 +33,11 @@ class TestMSMSBindings(unittest.TestCase):
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
   # test if msms package is available on system, otherwise ignore tests
-  VERSION_REQUIRED = '2.6.1'
   try:
     msms._GetExecutable(msms_exe=None, msms_env='MSMSSERVER')
   except(settings.FileNotFound):
     print "Could not find msms executable: ignoring unit tests"
     exit(0)
-  version = msms.GetVersion(msms_exe=None, msms_env='MSMSSERVER')
-  if version!=VERSION_REQUIRED:
-    print "MSMS version (%s) does not match required version %s: ignoring unit tests"%(version, VERSION_REQUIRED)
   try:
     unittest.main()
   except Exception, e: