I also had to google this, since it's not what I would think of first. According to http://regist2.virology-education.com/presentations/2018/HBVCure/13_Verdon.pdf a one single one time nivo dose appears to be good for many weeks (many weeks of receptor occupancy, slide 18), but has a rather weak effect (slide 20 "only one patient with > 1 log_10 reduction in HBsAg at either clinical timepoint").
The press statement does not mention any combo, so IMHO it's rather an expression of the too many PD-L1 in development and what companies try to do with them.
I was surprised to hear NKTR evaluating one of their oncology drugs in virology with Gilead. I believe they said HIV but the slide seems to allude to other possibilities. It's not a partnership per se each provides drug and maintain ownership. Gilead has the right of first refusal (for Virology only) though if NKTR decides to partner.
Slides 28 & 29 from the webcast here is a link for anyone interested
Chronic viral infections lead to exhausted virus-specific T-cells. Anti-PD(L)-1 drugs should help [1,2], but this won't be enough as the T-cells are prone to apoptosis (programmed cell death) [3], are metabolically dysfunctional [4] and much more [5,6].
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