diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/google_api_core/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/google_api_core/default.nix
index 5cb027eef46..ef18aae8b6c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/google_api_core/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/google_api_core/default.nix
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
-{ lib, buildPythonPackage, fetchPypi, pythonOlder
+{ lib, buildPythonPackage, fetchPypi, pythonOlder, isPy27
 , google_auth, protobuf, googleapis_common_protos, requests, grpcio, futures, mock, pytest }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "google-api-core";
   version = "1.7.0";
+  disabled = isPy27; # google namespace no longer works on python2
 
   src = fetchPypi {
     inherit pname version;