diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/protobuf/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/protobuf/default.nix
index d5ff4b04c59..73216f63f82 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/protobuf/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/protobuf/default.nix
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 { stdenv, fetchpatch, python, buildPythonPackage, isPy37
-, protobuf, google_apputils, pyext, libcxx
+, protobuf, google_apputils, pyext, libcxx, isPy27
 , disabled, doCheck ? true }:
 
 with stdenv.lib;
 
 buildPythonPackage {
   inherit (protobuf) name src version;
-  inherit disabled doCheck;
+  inherit disabled;
+  doCheck = doCheck && !isPy27; # setuptools>=41.4 no longer collects correctly on python2
 
   NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE =
     # work around python distutils compiling C++ with $CC