my $version_pod = <<'=cut';
=pod

=head1 NAME

blah blah...

=head1 VERSION

our $VERSION = "0.63";

=cut

our $VERSION = "0.63";
# ...

sub __test_version {
    my $v = __PACKAGE__->VERSION;
    return 1 if $version_pod =~ m/VERSION.*\Q$v/;
    return;
}