diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyexcel-xls/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyexcel-xls/default.nix
index 5ff87b2390eb..2da479c3d0b4 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyexcel-xls/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pyexcel-xls/default.nix
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
 {
   lib,
   buildPythonPackage,
-  fetchPypi,
+  fetchFromGitHub,
+  fetchpatch2,
   pyexcel-io,
   xlrd,
   xlwt,
-  nose,
   pyexcel,
-  mock,
+  pytestCheckHook,
+  pytest-cov,
 }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
@@ -15,11 +16,23 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   version = "0.7.0";
   format = "setuptools";
 
-  src = fetchPypi {
-    inherit pname version;
-    sha256 = "5ec606ef8667aafbb0c3fbd8242a7c23bf175ee7c10b08f70799b84fb2db84cb";
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = "pyexcel";
+    repo = "pyexcel-xls";
+    rev = "v${version}";
+    hash = "sha256-wxsx/LfeBxi+NnHxfxk3svzsBcdwOiLQ1660eoHfmLg=";
   };
 
+  patches = [
+    # https://github.com/pyexcel/pyexcel-xls/pull/54
+    (fetchpatch2 {
+      name = "nose-to-pytest.patch";
+      url = "https://github.com/pyexcel/pyexcel-xls/compare/d8953c8ff7dc9a4a3465f2cfc182acafa49f6ea2...9f0d48035114f73077dd0f109395af32b4d9d48b.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-2kVdN+kEYaJjXGzv9eudfKjRweMG0grTd5wnZXIDzUU=";
+      excludes = [ ".github/*" ];
+    })
+  ];
+
   propagatedBuildInputs = [
     pyexcel-io
     xlrd
@@ -27,17 +40,15 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   ];
 
   nativeCheckInputs = [
-    nose
+    pytestCheckHook
     pyexcel
-    mock
+    pytest-cov
   ];
 
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace setup.py --replace "xlrd<2" "xlrd<3"
   '';
 
-  checkPhase = "nosetests --exclude test_issue_151";
-
   meta = {
     description = "Wrapper library to read, manipulate and write data in xls using xlrd and xlwt";
     homepage = "http://docs.pyexcel.org/";