The National Institutes of Health has suspended enrollment in a huge clinical trial on the health benefits of moderate drinking while officials review whether its employees inappropriately solicited funding from the alcohol industry.

Five liquor and beer companies are providing about $67 million of the $100 million cost of the 10-year study. In March, The New York Times reported that scientists and officials with the N.I.H.’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism met with alcohol industry groups on several occasions in 2013 and 2014 to discuss funding.

During the meetings, scientists suggested the research might reflect favorably on moderate drinking, while institute officials pressed the groups for support, according to documents obtained by The Times.

The lead investigator on the trial, Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, described his role in the meetings as educational. Critics said the presentations compromised the objectivity of the trial and may have violated federal funding rules.