diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/xercesc/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/xercesc/default.nix
index 7ed20ed7432b..8ad4e6d6a8a6 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/xercesc/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/xercesc/default.nix
@@ -9,8 +9,12 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "04q4c460wqzyzmprjm22igcm1d52xr20ajxnhr33nv95mbw92qfx";
   };
 
+  # Disable SSE2 extensions on platforms for which they are not enabled by default
+  configureFlags = [ "--disable-sse2" ];
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
   meta = {
-    homepage = http://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/;
+    homepage = https://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/;
     description = "Validating XML parser written in a portable subset of C++";
     license = stdenv.lib.licenses.asl20;
     platforms = stdenv.lib.platforms.linux ++ stdenv.lib.platforms.darwin;