diff --git a/contrib/osx/make_osx b/contrib/osx/make_osx
index 94ea087e5..ab934eb2a 100755
--- a/contrib/osx/make_osx
+++ b/contrib/osx/make_osx
@@ -92,6 +92,10 @@ rm -rf "$VENV_DIR"
 python3 -m venv $VENV_DIR
 source $VENV_DIR/bin/activate
 
+# don't add debug info to compiled C files (e.g. when pip calls setuptools/wheel calls gcc)
+# see https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/6505#issuecomment-526613584
+export CFLAGS="-g0"
+
 info "Installing build dependencies"
 python3 -m pip install --no-build-isolation --no-dependencies --no-warn-script-location \
     -Ir ./contrib/deterministic-build/requirements-build-base.txt \