OBJECTIVES: Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population. Morocco has a national list of essential drugs, which the last revision was carried out at the end of 2011. The pharmaceutical products covered by this list have an annual budget allocated by the Ministry of health (MOH) to ensure their availability in public hospitals. The aim of our study is to assess the part of essential medicine defined by the MOH in the formulary of a Moroccan tertiary hospital METHODS: We have used the medicines formulary Ibn Sina University Hospital Center in Rabat, It was updated on 2016, which includes nine hospitals and contains all the medical specialties; we have analyzed the part of essential medicines according to the WHO list of 2015 and the national list of 2012. RESULTS: Of the 818 articles analyzed, we found that essential drugs account for 29.7% according to the WHO list and 37.4% according to the national list. Essential medicines belong mainly to the N, J and A therapeutic classes (ATC classification) according to the WHO list (27.5%, 14.8%, 10.2%) and Moroccan list (26.5%, 18.7% and 9.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the rate of essential drugs in our hospital is not large enough. In order to adhere to the policy of the Ministry of Health which aims to ensure a harmonious and sustained health development based on the availability of essential medicines, our institution is asked to review the part of these drugs in the hspital formulary.