diff --git a/pkgs/development/r-modules/default.nix b/pkgs/development/r-modules/default.nix
index 4510308d3e56..ee1fb24b3098 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/r-modules/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/r-modules/default.nix
@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ let
     pbdMPI = [ pkgs.openmpi ];
     pbdNCDF4 = [ pkgs.netcdf ];
     pbdPROF = [ pkgs.openmpi ];
-    pbdZMQ = [ pkgs.which ];
+    pbdZMQ = lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [ pkgs.which ];
     pdftools = [ pkgs.poppler.dev ];
     PKI = [ pkgs.openssl.dev ];
     png = [ pkgs.libpng.dev ];
@@ -393,6 +393,7 @@ let
     nat = [ pkgs.which ];
     nat_nblast = [ pkgs.which ];
     nat_templatebrains = [ pkgs.which ];
+    pbdZMQ = lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [ pkgs.binutils.bintools ];
     RMark = [ pkgs.which ];
     RPushbullet = [ pkgs.which ];
     qtpaint = [ pkgs.cmake ];
@@ -776,6 +777,14 @@ let
       PKG_LIBS = "-L${pkgs.openblasCompat}/lib -lopenblas";
     });
 
+    pbdZMQ = old.pbdZMQ.overrideDerivation (attrs: {
+      postPatch = lib.optionalString stdenv.isDarwin ''
+        for file in R/*.{r,r.in}; do
+            sed -i 's#system("which \(\w\+\)"[^)]*)#"${pkgs.binutils.bintools}/bin/\1"#g' $file
+        done
+      '';
+    });
+
     qtbase = old.qtbase.overrideDerivation (attrs: {
       patches = [ ./patches/qtbase.patch ];
     });