diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/bwapy/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/bwapy/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..31884074def
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/bwapy/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+{ stdenv
+, buildPythonPackage
+, pythonOlder
+, fetchPypi
+, bwa
+, cffi
+, zlib
+}:
+
+buildPythonPackage rec {
+  pname = "bwapy";
+  version = "0.1.4";
+  disabled = pythonOlder "3.6";
+
+  src = fetchPypi {
+    inherit pname version;
+    sha256 = "090qwx3vl729zn3a7sksbviyg04kc71gpbm3nd8dalqp673x1npw";
+  };
+  postPatch = ''
+    # replace bundled bwa
+    rm -r bwa/*
+    cp ${bwa}/lib/*.a ${bwa}/include/*.h bwa/
+
+    substituteInPlace setup.py \
+      --replace 'setuptools>=49.2.0' 'setuptools'
+  '';
+
+  buildInputs = [ zlib bwa ];
+
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ cffi ];
+
+  # no tests
+  doCheck = false;
+  pythonImportsCheck = [ "bwapy" ];
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    homepage = "https://github.com/ACEnglish/acebinf";
+    description = "Python bindings to bwa mem aligner";
+    license = licenses.mpl20;
+    maintainers = with maintainers; [ ris ];
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index 92f8b9690cb..e67ac553827 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -979,6 +979,8 @@ in {
 
   bx-python = callPackage ../development/python-modules/bx-python { inherit (pkgs) zlib; };
 
+  bwapy = callPackage ../development/python-modules/bwapy { };
+
   bytecode = callPackage ../development/python-modules/bytecode { };
 
   bz2file = callPackage ../development/python-modules/bz2file { };