In this paper, we study, in the Newtonian limit, the virial theorem in the context of a scalar tensor fourth order gravity. In particular, we show, that for a isolated galaxy in viral equilibrium, a specific class of scalar tensor fourth order gravity, i.e. $$f(R,\phi )+\omega (\phi )\,\phi _{;\alpha }\,\phi ^{;\alpha }$$
f
(
R
,
ϕ
)
+
ω
(
ϕ
)
ϕ
;
α
ϕ
;
α
in not suitable to explain the large fraction of dark matter necessary to have the flatness of the galaxies rotation curves experimentally observed.