diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 381b7cd9..22b1a8bc 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ func doCheckExistenceAndParse() {
 			customerrors.Check(errors.New("dep failed to parse lock file and returned nil"), "nancy could not continue due to dep failure")
 		}
 
-		purls, invalidPurls := packages.ExtractPurlsUsingDep(*project)
+		purls, invalidPurls := packages.ExtractPurlsUsingDep(project)
 
 		checkOSSIndex(purls, invalidPurls)
 	case strings.Contains(config.Path, "go.sum"):
diff --git a/packages/dep.go b/packages/dep.go
index 9b125393..bcbbaad3 100644
--- a/packages/dep.go
+++ b/packages/dep.go
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 )
 
-func ExtractPurlsUsingDep(project dep.Project) ([]string, []string) {
+func ExtractPurlsUsingDep(project *dep.Project) ([]string, []string) {
 	lockedProjects := project.Lock.P
 	var purls []string
 	var invalidPurls []string
diff --git a/packages/dep_int_test.go b/packages/dep_int_test.go
index cb1524e4..c52a533c 100644
--- a/packages/dep_int_test.go
+++ b/packages/dep_int_test.go
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ func TestExtractPurlsFromManifestUsingDep(t *testing.T) {
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Error(err)
 	} else {
-		purls, invalidPurls := ExtractPurlsUsingDep(*project)
+		purls, invalidPurls := ExtractPurlsUsingDep(project)
 		if len(invalidPurls) != 7 {
 			t.Errorf("Number of invalid purls not as expected. Expected : %d, Got %d", 7, len(purls))
 		}