diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openlibm/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openlibm/default.nix
index ad0eab88c51..e38e6c9e31f 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openlibm/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openlibm/default.nix
@@ -7,10 +7,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     sha256 = "0cwqqqlblj3kzp9aq1wnpfs1fl0qd1wp1xzm5shb09w06i4rh9nn";
   };
 
-  patches = [ ./openlibm-prefix.patch ];
-  postPatch = ''
-    substituteAllInPlace Make.inc
-  '';
+  makeFlags = [ "prefix=$(out)" ];
 
   meta = {
     description = "High quality system independent, portable, open source libm implementation";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openlibm/openlibm-prefix.patch b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openlibm/openlibm-prefix.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 0c000497994..00000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openlibm/openlibm-prefix.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-diff --git a/Make.inc b/Make.inc
-index 83d9612..e951c56 100644
---- a/Make.inc
-+++ b/Make.inc
-@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ VERSION = 0.4
- SOMAJOR = 1
- SOMINOR = 0
- DESTDIR =
--prefix = /usr/local
-+prefix = @out@
- bindir = $(prefix)/bin
- libdir = $(prefix)/lib
- includedir = $(prefix)/include