diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index c4a3b65eb..925eca18a 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # pak (development version)
 
+* Setting `use_bioconductor = FALSE` (i.e. the `PKG_USE_BIOCONDUCTOR`
+  env var, or the `pkg.use_bioconductor` option) now truly prevents
+  any network contact with Bioconductor.
+
 # pak 0.9.2
 
 * No user visible changes.
diff --git a/src/library/pkgcache/R/metadata-cache.R b/src/library/pkgcache/R/metadata-cache.R
index bebfd0f9b..29db341e3 100644
--- a/src/library/pkgcache/R/metadata-cache.R
+++ b/src/library/pkgcache/R/metadata-cache.R
@@ -1040,7 +1040,7 @@ extract_revdeps <- function(pkgs, packages, dependencies, recursive) {
 cmc__get_repos <- function(repos, bioc, cran_mirror, r_version, auth = TRUE) {
   repos[["CRAN"]] <- cran_mirror
   repos <- unlist(repos)
-  bioc_names <- bioconductor$get_repos()
+  bioc_names <- if (bioc) bioconductor$get_repos() else character(0L)
   res <- data_frame(
     name = names(repos),
     url = unname(repos),