diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pynndescent/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pynndescent/default.nix
index a25ac2d028fd..725a2dbcf43b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pynndescent/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pynndescent/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { lib
 , buildPythonPackage
 , fetchPypi
+, importlib-metadata
 , joblib
 , llvmlite
 , numba
@@ -28,6 +29,8 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     numba
     scikit-learn
     scipy
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (pythonOlder "3.8") [
+    importlib-metadata
   ];
 
   checkInputs = [