diff --git a/dev-python/bottleneck/bottleneck-1.3.7.ebuild b/dev-python/bottleneck/bottleneck-1.3.7.ebuild
index 30e7b65bb101d..847f1e198bd82 100644
--- a/dev-python/bottleneck/bottleneck-1.3.7.ebuild
+++ b/dev-python/bottleneck/bottleneck-1.3.7.ebuild
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 EAPI=8
 
+DISTUTILS_EXT=1
 DISTUTILS_USE_PEP517=setuptools
 PYTHON_COMPAT=( python3_{9..11} )