diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pdftotext/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pdftotext/default.nix
index dd22bc5be65b..2ba18dd92e4e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pdftotext/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pdftotext/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, buildPythonPackage, fetchPypi, poppler }:
+{ lib, stdenv, buildPythonPackage, fetchPypi, poppler }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "pdftotext";
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "a067c121654917ecbe07fbd71c807c34bbdb1ea029e269ddd11925ee7e191d3f";
   };
 
+  postPatch = lib.optionalString stdenv.isDarwin ''
+    substituteInPlace setup.py \
+        --replace '= brew_poppler_include()' '= "${lib.getDev poppler}/include", "${lib.getLib poppler}/lib"'
+  '';
+
   buildInputs = [ poppler ];
 
   meta = with lib; {