diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/biology/ncbi-tools/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/biology/ncbi-tools/default.nix
index 45460c4b1aa..e47b1744da7 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/biology/ncbi-tools/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/biology/ncbi-tools/default.nix
@@ -1,21 +1,23 @@
 {stdenv, fetchurl, cpio}:
 
-# Note: may need the C-libs at ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/toolbox/ncbi_tools++/2008/Mar_17_2008/NCBI_C_Toolkit/ncbi_c--Mar_17_2008.tar.gz (or split out?)
+# Note: you may want the older C-libs at ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/toolbox/ncbi_tools++/2008/Mar_17_2008/NCBI_C_Toolkit/ncbi_c--Mar_17_2008.tar.gz
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "ncbi_cxx";
-  ncbi_version = "Mar_17_2008";
+  name = "ncbi_tools";
+  ncbi_version="Dec_31_2008";
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/toolbox/ncbi_tools++/2008/${ncbi_version}/ncbi_cxx--${ncbi_version}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "0mxbmz6gndallz8l5jdslq6illa3hgf31xi2yb984mqm9in485as";
+    sha256 = "1b2v0dcdqn3bysgdkj57sxmd6s0hc9wpnxssviz399g6plhxggbr";
   };
 
   configureFlags = "--without-debug --with-bin-release --with-dll --without-static";
+  # PIC flag (position independent code for shared libraries)
+  NIX_CXXFLAGS_COMPILE = if stdenv.system == "x86_64-linux" then "-fPIC" else "";
   buildInputs = [cpio];
 
   meta = {
-    description = ''NCBI Bioinformatics toolbox (incl. blast)'';
-    longDescription = ''The NCBI Bioinformatics toolsbox, including command-line utilties, libraries and include files. No X11 support (at this point).'';
+    description = ''NCBI Bioinformatics toolbox (incl. BLAST)'';
+    longDescription = ''The NCBI Bioinformatics toolsbox, including command-line utilties, libraries and include files. No X11 support'';
     homepage = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/IEB/ToolBox/; 
     license = "GPL";
     priority = "5";   # zlib.so gives a conflict with zlib