diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/h5py/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/h5py/default.nix
index 701b8f78f83b..36b1322a88b3 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/h5py/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/h5py/default.nix
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ in buildPythonPackage rec {
   # avoid strict pinning of numpy
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace setup.py \
-      --replace "numpy ==" "numpy >="
+      --replace "numpy ==" "numpy >=" \
+      --replace "mpi4py ==" "mpi4py >="
   '';
 
   HDF5_DIR = "${hdf5}";