In the mid 2000s NIH was flat funded, and lots of alcohol research went out the window. I worked at a place that did alcohol research at large (mostly mitochondria/liver systems biology stuff). Mostly the idea from funders was that alcoholism is not a disease, and funding should be moved to more pressing things like cancer/diabetes. I would say half the surviving labs moved on to metabolic issues in disease, and the other half did translational medicine based on their research. This was a huge blow, caused a few retirements and closing of several labs. I had to lay off a couple of my friends (technicians).

It is surprising the alcohol industry is going to such huge lengths, and I can't remember ever hearing of such things. It would be a huge blow to your credibility at the time I was in science.